Unlike my artist friends, I never took any formal training.

Snapshots of Canoe Lake and @mowatlodge

2 more sleeps in Toronto and then I'll be going up North.

I try hard to make my large pieces rise above good decoration.

The Drums of War beat ever louder: PM @bobbyborden overseas, British near Somme, and US to declare war

One day before I go up North. Follow the Journal of My Last Spring of 1917. ttlastspring.com

I was keenly interested in the work of Van Gogh

In 1914 I was busy 'slopping paint' with Varley and developing into a cubist.

It's what's outside the frame that counts the most in a painting.

1916 Red Pines #tt1916

I detest subterfuge and snobbery but I am sensitive to ridicule.

March 22, 1917 Toronto World

In spring 1916, I painted the West Wind sketch. Harris painted Laurie Lake.

I had a love of music, especially the Mendelssohn Choir in Toronto

The majority of Canadians in the Park either work there or are consumptive refugees from Toronto and Ottawa

In the summer the greens are too intense and undifferentiated to interest me.

It is ironic in painting the Canadian North, there are far more Americans in the Park than Canadians.

Solemn words from Henry Van Dyke

1906 Portrait of an Old Lake Captain. Oil on canvas laid down on masonite

I wanted to be a sailor or enlist in the Boer War but my father wouldn't let me go.