By definition, an “homage” is – “The term often used in the arts for an artist who shows respect for another artist by imitation……..” And that’s what I did when I created my painting I call “Homage”.
When I was a high school student in the mid 1960’s my art teacher, Neil Broadfoot, at Crestwood Secondary School in Peterborough, Ontario, first inspired me. He woke the artist within me, but it wouldn’t be for another 20 years before my artistic bent would show itself under the tutelage of Roy Henry Vickers.
When Broadfoot taught, he told us of the Group of Seven. But he also told us of an associate of theirs, Tom Thomson. Thomson’s work caught my eye. He traveled by canoe or on foot in the Canadian wilderness. A lot of his time was spent in Algonquin Park. Anyone who knows his work realizes that his paintings many times reflect the lakes, rocks and trees of remote, wilderness Canada. All these years later, that in fact is what I’m drawn to. A simple check of my web site (www.edhillart.com) will show you image after image of similar composition and subject matter to those that Thomson explored. Years ago I realized that I was in fact mirroring Tom Thomson in so many ways. Not only was I painting similar images, indeed I was finding them by canoe or as I hiked wilderness trails.
In 2018 I thought it was time to pay my respects to the artist who has been such a huge influence in my work. I chose to imitate one of his most iconic paintings, “The Jack Pine”. While for the most part I mimicked the composition, I used my own unique techniques in creating “Homage”. In effect, what I tried to do was imagine I’d been in the canoe with Thomson that day when we’d come ashore and we’d both found the same tree. We both did the same painting of the same composition, but in our own individual and unique hands.
It was an interesting challenge for me. But in doing so I really explored Tom Thomson’s palette and his unique way of interpreting water, sky, rock and trees. Completely different than my way of artistically saying the same thing, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world, just for a fleeting few hours of painting, through the eyes, brushes and paints of one of Canada’s most renowned and celebrated artists – Tom Thomson.
