“My painting, Community, is my idea of a reflection of the Group of Seven’s paintings, which gave Canadian viewers an eye-opening experience a century ago. The Group of Seven was a group of artists that painted in the 1920s and 1930s, and that had a unique style. Their paintings helped break European traditions and initiated the first major Canadian art movement. They focused on the beauty of nature in a country mired in modern day technology.”

—Crystal Li (Grade 8, Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia)

Passionate about the great outdoors, Tom Thomson (1877–1917) is one of the most well-known artists in Canadian art history, and his modern landscape paintings of northern Ontario in particular have become critical touchstones for generations of Canadian artists interested in the landscape genre.