Last evening I watched a fascinating documentary. Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Group of Seven, I quote from this website:

http://www.whitepinepictures.com/painted-land-in-search-of-the-group-of-seven/

“The tangled wilderness of Algoma and Lake Superior’s expansive North Shore inspired Canada’s most famous artists, The Group of Seven, as well as their guiding spirit, Tom Thomson. Their work defined Canada’s artistic representation of itself for most of the past century. One hundred years later, their paintings retain a powerful hold on Canada’s visual imagination..”

Wikipedia says: “The Group of Seven, also known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933…Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature,^[2] the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.”

In this stunningly beautiful movie, the producers explore the rugged location of many of the paintings of the Group, searching for the exact spot of some of the famous paintings. To see the ‘real’ scene and then the painting was eye-opening and moving. I wish I could show a pair for your enjoyment. You can see a bit in the trailer on this site.

http://www.reidbetweenthelines.ca/tracing-the-footsteps-of-the-group-of-seven/

http://www.whitepinepictures.com/painted-land-in-search-of-the-group-of-seven/

I hope you enjoy a few of the scenes I saw last night—at least the paintings of the scenes.

Members of the Group traveled throughout Ontario, often spending weeks living together in a box car provided by the railway company. They went out every day, hiking and or canoeing through the wilderness with their painting supplies and a lunch and capturing dozens of paintings. Their collection of Canadian scenes is truly awe-inspiring.

To think how they searched for scenes, and recreated them in stunning colors is truly awe-inspiring and reminds me I should seek the heart of my stories with the same abandon and dedication these artists did.