New Expressions in Landscape Art: Then and Now
By: Joel Irwin and Katarina Tarrant
Canadian landscape painting has been one of our nation’s more recognized contributions to the “mainstream” tastes in art, a contribution characterized by the uniqueness of the Canadian wild attracting a new artistic temperament. This, however, was not always the case; near the end of the 19th century, art critics and buyers preferred European landscapes, believing the Canadian wilderness to be too rustic and irregular a subject matter for art. The wilderness was certainly irregular: the Canadian Shield, the oldest exposed bedrock in the world and a dominant force in Canada’s ecological development, created diverse land formations over time, formations rich in colour, texture, and shape: the lakes, rivers, rocky cliffs, deep waters, and pine-clad hills made up a uniquely Canadian landscape, and to paint it was to discover not only new subjects, but new styles.
Algonquin Park was to be a key setting for such discoveries. Undiscouraged by the general opinion of the Canadian wild as unpaintable, the newly formed Toronto Arts Student League began to organize sketching trips into the Park in 1902 to explore its rich landscape, among whom was J.E.H. Macdonald, a future member of one of Canada’s most famous groups of artists–the Group of Seven. The Group of Seven was united by a common passion and goal: to pursue a new artistic expression of the Canadian wilderness. In doing so, they experimented with different styles to capture the spirit of their pristine subjects, and by combining elements from the French impressionists and Scandinavian landscape artists, they created new and vivid renderings of the northern forests.
Since the Group’s discovery of the great potential of landscape art in Algonquin Park, contemporary artists have continued to explore further its depths by experimenting with different elements of composition and drawing from different traditions. One of these artists is Don 
Cavin, an artist from Sutton, Ontario, whose works emphasize shape, pattern and design by employing a deeply valued and geometric interpretation of the Algonquin landscape; his colours remain distinct with little to no blending, creating strong contrasts that highlight the natural designs – a technique reminiscent of Paul Cezanne’s colour blocking, in which sharp colour contrasts create the effect of mass and dimension.
Another landscape style of particular originality is that of Rod Prouse, whose paintings portray a fresh and innovative vision of landscapes; his works combine staccato and bold brushstrokes, strong colour contrasts, and distinct patterning, all within a balanced composition. His experimentation with design and colour has achieved a unique, contemporary rendering of the Algonquin forest.
Of all the fresh visions of the Canadian landscape, however, one artist stands alone in creating something remarkably new: Tony Bianco, an established landscape painter in Canada, whose works have been featured not only in galleries and museums across Canada and the United States, but on the Canadian Toonie, has begun experimenting with gold and silver leaf in his landscape oils, and has achieved a luminosity far beyond the capability of any palette. His new works convey a rich, reflective quality, creating a halo-like aura around the trees. The luminous effects carry an almost spiritual significance, reminiscent of the gold halos in medieval, religious iconography, or the romanticized auras of a Gustav Klimt painting, but in Tony’s work, we find something completely new: his gold tones move beyond the spiritual and the romantic and become a liberated expression of the natural world, a fresh and original landscape style.
Although many years have elapsed since J.E.H. Macdonald traveled to Algonquin to paint its irregular landscapes, the passion and aims which drew him there continue to draw artists today, and continue to inspire bold and groundbreaking artistic styles. The artists here named are but few of the many, but their efforts convey an irrefutable truth:
Canadian landscapes demand the very best of our artists, and compel them to explore bold, new expressions in art.
