Franklin Carmichael 1890 - 1945

G. Blair Laing, Toronto

Private Collection, St. Catharines

In this fine watercolour, likely of the La Cloche Hills north of Manitoulin Island, Carmichael shows his exceptional technical mastery of the difficult medium of watercolour, and his affection for this region, which inspired most of his best work.

One good test of an important work from any period is its apparent freshness. Carmichael's watercolour, which has not faded nor gives any indication of being dated or stale, has been strongly and thoughtfully conceived.  It looks as though it was painted yesterday, largely because the intensity of the artist's vision is so forceful.

Another test is whether the artist's technique is capable or deft enough to hide any sign of effort or difficulty of execution. Here again Carmichael excels. The large amount of detail throughout the painting is immediately striking: the number of shapes and colours in the sky alone is impressive: the recession from the fallen tree in the foreground to the far shore of the lake is exact.  One senses a sort of compression that creates a high impact.