Pencil, Ink, Watercolor
Tomhu lived with his family in Vancouver for 25
years at 2527 Quebec Street in Vancouver, this was at the
time that Vancouver was just becoming a city. Both Tomhu and
his father fought in the fire in gastown. In 1907 Tomhu's
father writes "We spent more years in Vancouver than anywhere
on earth."
Because Tomhu painted in Toronto and Vancouver, we have many
fine landscaped depicting Canada in the early stage of development.
In his paintings he exhibits a real skill in showing natures
many moods. This is especially seen in his portrayals of the
sky in" "Sun breaking through the clouds". In describing Tomhu's
painting in Coast, the Sea and Canadian Art, the author says,
"The air feels dense and still-quiet like Vancouver at the
end of a hot July day". And the pumpkin colored cloud are
a complete surprise. Robert's audacity is still a little thrilling"
As well as landscaped Tomhu captures the informality of local
activities, which seem as natural as the land around him. One
sketch is "Women Combing Girl's Hair. Many paintings show people
in every day activities such as " Camp Story", "A Country Road
at Sunrise' and "Indian Woman Walking on the Ties." Tomhu was
very good at portraiture. His love of faces and figures is shown
in his sketch books - they are full of sketches of small faces.
The finesses and detail of the sketches can be seen in many
of them.
Tomhu's sketchbooks and paintings are not only visual but written
diaries of his artistic development. He filled his sketchbooks
with theories of his techniques which he late use in teaching.
Some of these writing include "Mixing and Using Oil Paints".
"The Easiest Way of Painting Portraits and Landscapes",
Proportion and Scale in Drawing". And "Color Techniques
to Make a Picture Look Real". In his dairies he has carefully
written out the philosophy and thought of F.W. Moody and Ruskin.
Records show that Tomhu Huron Roberts later resided
at Caulfieds until his death in 1938. Without Tomhu's patient
study of color, light, shade, proportion and scale early in
his life, his later paintings could not have been achieved so
successfully. His painting reflects the natural beauty of Canada.
We are certainly luck to have the painting and sketches of Tomhu
showing Canada in it's pioneer days. 1, 2,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,12,13,14 are from Roberts, John Hugh Private
Dairies 3 from Tomhu's writing 9. Thom.William W. Fine Art in
Vancouver (1886-1960) A Historical Survey Thesis, University
of British Columbia 11 Coasts, the Sea and Canadian Art The
Gallery, Stratford, Ontario
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