The Group of Seven, Solitude and Splendour

Franklin Carmichael – Cranberry Lake (1931)

This past week, on May 7th, the McMichael Art Gallery, a marvellous ark of Canadian painting and sculpture and other forms of artistic expression celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first exhibit by the Group of Seven painters. As you probably know, the Group of Seven was actually more than seven because of changing membership over time, and the artist who was instrumental in their formation, Tom Thomson, drowned before they took on this identity. 



A.Y. Jackson Grace Lake 

These artists are dear to my heart. I served a downtown congregation in Sudbury, Ontario, for eleven years, and while my ministry was urban, our family regularly "worshipped" in wild places of the north where Group of Seven members regularly travelled to sketch and paint. We took the train into Algoma country with canoe aboard, then paddled back to Lake Superior. On a number of occasions we paddled past Franklin Carmichael's cabin on Cranberry Lake, and made the long portages into Grace and Nellie lakes. Our family regularly explored Killarney Park which contains OSA (Ontario Society of Artists) and A.Y. Jackson lakes 

We weren't secret pantheists, but these settings were both refuge and cathedral for us, revealing the glory of God in solitude and splendour. There were times when thunder storms put the fear o' God in all of us while we were camping in the back country, but in a wondrous way. 



My condolences to the McMichael, considering the splendid exhibit mounted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Group of Seven which was closed down. along with the gallery, because of COVID-19. We are so grateful that we were able to enjoy it back in February. That day I returned to the spot in the gallery where I figure my parents took my picture alongside an aged AY Jackson, who lived there in the 1960's.. 

And of course, any events for this past week couldn't occur as planned. Still, my heart and soul are lifted with the reminder of all this distinctive group of artists offer to all of us. 

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-39-metro-morning/clip/15775143-art-gallery-of-ontario-marking-100-years-since-group-of-sevens-first-toronto-exhibition