Tom Thomson's "Smoke Lake" 1912

TT-199-Draft

Smoke Lake
Alternate title: Smoke Lake, Algonquin Lake Spring 1912
Oil on paperboard (Birchmore board)
7 x 9 15/16 in. (17.8 x 25.2 cm) 
Tom's Paint Box Size

In 1976, when I graduated from Queens in Nuclear Physics, I was not aware of the friends that I would make forty years later in association with Tom Thomson. It turned out that several of my future Thomson friends were also involved in nuclear physics. Except for a twist of fate, I was also destined to go to Chalk River to study and work in the Nuclear Industry. Those friends would have been encountered that much sooner in Deep River and while paddling the Petawawa and the Dumoine.  One can only ride one horse at a time, and meteorology came along first, so I saddled up. There can be no looking back, but I often wonder..

Meanwhile, in July of 1977, Jim and Sue Waddington began a 36-year journey of discovery that culminated with "In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven" in 2013. Jim even attended the same high school in Brockville, graduating from BCIVS in 1959.  Jim became a professor of physics at McMaster University, specializing in nuclear physics. Jim even married his high school sweetheart - as did I. 

My prized, autographed copy of Jim and Sue Waddington's book

Diana and Bob McElroy began their investigations into the painting places of Tom Thomson in the 1980s. Bob McElroy also has a strong background in physics and worked at Chalk River. Diana and Bob have a large and significant web presence detailing the painting places of Tom Thomson. I found these sites to be invaluable when I was working on the "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" blogs. 

 Jim and Sue Waddington, the authors of "In the Footsteps" are friends. We share a very similar life story. They have contributed to several of the posts comprising "Tom". In fact, our ongoing friendship leads to this story.

Jim writes: "Sue read somewhere that Tom Thomson, working as a guide, took people to Molly's Island in Smoke Lake. So that was as good an excuse as needed to go for a paddle. The wind came up, and the skies darkened. The island is small. I remember a small sandy beach on the north side. We crossed the island, took a photo, retreated to the canoe, and got soaked."

The Waddington photo taken looking south from the south shore of Molly's Island

The very best way to start with a Thomson post is with the painting location. Using that information, the direction of view is well established from the get go. I am only left with the earth sciences to unravel. 

Comparing the Waddington photo with Tom's "Smoke Lake" was an interesting exercise that few will ever bother to do. Tom certainly was unconcerned, being in possession of his "Artistic Licence" - as am I. He chopped 16% from the width of the horizon to make his subject fit the small plein air panel. Tom judiciously removed the uninteresting flat portion of the distant ridge line. The following graphic guides you through the steps I took to deduce that cryptic number. 

2.6 cm chopped out of the flat ridge line in the Waddington photo is 16% of the 16.5 cm wide horizon.

The match to the terrain with the described adjustments is almost exact. Tom also frequently exaggerates the vertical extent of the terrain. He refrained from making significant changes to the heights in "Smoke Lake". The subject of this painting was the weather and not the hills. 

The weather in the Waddington photo was even a close match to what Tom painted! 

Looking south from Molly's Island across the south basin of Smoke Lake

The winds were strong southwesterly on the afternoon that Tom painted "Smoke Lake". Using the Beaufort Wind Scale and matching the waves and whitecaps to the descriptions, the winds are estimated to be 20 to 25 knots (37-46 kph) when Tom was painting. The fetch across Smoke Lake is also an important factor, and the winds could have easily been stronger in a more exposed location. 

• 17-21 knots- Fresh Breeze-  Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed. Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters.
• 22-27 knots- Strong Breeze-Large waves begin to form; the white foam crests are more extensive everywhere. Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telegraph wires; umbrellas used with difficulty.

Note that the waves were much smaller in the lee of the distant shore, so the strong wind had to be mainly from the south. Further, the shape of the cumulus elements (the white arc in the above graphic) comprising the flanking line revealed that the winds at cloud level were southwesterly. 

The convective cloud was quite likely a cumulonimbus - simply a thunderstorm. Tom included the rear edge of the flanking line. That cloud was front lit, indicating that the sun was in the western sky - it was afternoon. Thunderstorms typically require significant daytime heating before they fire up, so are more unlikely in the morning. The cloud was tall above the very dark base, which is characteristic of cumulonimbus. 

SCUD is meteorological slang for "Scattered Cumulus Under Deck". The "deck" referred to is the base of the cumulonimbus cloud, which is the lifted condensation level (LCL) for the air mass. Daytime heating of the land warms adjacent air parcels, which rise buoyantly to saturation at the LCL. 

SCUD are twisted shreds of cloud lifted from the ground by the turbulent winds. The moist surface air parcels are turbulently stirred and lifted to saturation. These air parcels become clouds "under the deck" if the ground and turbulent air parcels are additionally moist from any preceding rain.  

I used the conceptual model for a supercellular thunderstorm as a worst-case scenario. There is no conclusive evidence in Tom's painting that the convection was even a thunderstorm. Tom did not include lightning this time on his panel. The flanking line is characteristic of the significant wind shear required to create both multi-cell type cumulonimbus and supercells.  The following photo depicts a multicell thunderstorm looking from the south while Tom was on the northwest flank of the convection. 

Jim Waddington writes:

 "Many years ago, my father had a book about instant weather forecasting. I  often use the ideas while on a trip. The only trick that I remember was that dark skies with small, low, fast-moving black clouds means 'rain within five minutes'. We were about to get wet but so was Tom."

"Instant weather forecasting" is about learning from the lines in the sky... see "Lines in the Sky and the Meaning of Life" for more details. However, meteorology is often more complex than what can be viewed from your immediate location. Weather is always lurking just beyond the horizon. I advise that a meteorologist accompany every canoe trip... 

The trick that Jim remembered, "small, low, fast-moving black clouds" refers to SCUD  clouds. Depending on the illumination, the optically very thick clouds can be dark (backlit) or white (frontlit) as in Tom's weather observation above. The SCUD indicate that it has rained recently nearby and that moisture has been lifted to saturation by strong and turbulent winds. The fact that the clouds can be seen to be moving quickly tells us that they are nearby and close to the ground. Depending on the location of the convection, more showers could be minutes or even longer upstream. This is a good trick.

I asked my colleague Johnny Lade to have a look at this painting as if he were making a weather observation. Known to his students as "Johnny Met", he has a lifetime of experience observing the actual weather. Johnny nailed this observation since Thomson painted exactly what he saw.

"At first glance, I knew Tom had stopped a summer thunderstorm.

He painted, fast-moving Scud clouds, white caps on the lake, probably a wind shift in the down draft, bringing cooler temperatures, thunder and lightning, and heavy showers. Tops of the cloud would be into the tropopause, moving the cumulonimbus cloud at a fast speed, so quickly that in ten or fifteen minutes, the sun would return. A fresh and cooler air from thirty thousand feet and the smell of ozone.

I worked many thunderstorms in my weather career from daytime heating afternoon summer thunderstorms to the fast moving line ahead of a crashing cold front and the sneaky warm front thunderstorms causing lots of noise in the middle of the night. 

Most of my career were postings at airports so passing thunderstorms put a crimp in arrivals and departures with sudden wind shifts: with a head wind suddenly becoming a tail wind needing a longer runway on landing, and small aircraft not tied down on the ramp."

Many thanks to my friend Johnny Lade. His observation rings true, breathes life into Tom's painting, and adds another dimension to the story. Thomson loved painting thunderstorms!

Tom reserved his summers for fishing. The biting bugs discouraged staying still in one place for too long, which rules out painting. The potential to fish and be reimbursed while doing so is called "guiding". Tom was all in for that lucrative enterprise, as art did not really pay. 

Molly's Island on Smoke Lake would have been a perfect fishing and camping destination. An interesting 6-kilometer paddle from Mowat Lodge was all it took. The numerous shoals around and just south of the island are still readily apparent on Google Earth and probably attracted great schools of fish in Tom's day well before the pressure on the fishery increased to current levels. 

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., Tom Thomson 

Inscription verso: 

• t., in graphite, Smoke Lake / Algonquin Park; 
• c., in graphite, ca. 1912; 
• b.r., 5 (circled) National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4676) 

  

  The edges of Tom's panel show how it was
  slid into and out of his paint box.
  
  

Provenance:

• Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto, c. 1913 
• James MacCallum, Toronto, before 1940 
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4676). Purchased from James MacCallum, Toronto, 1946

That's the story behind Tom Thomson's "Smoke Lake". His painting was really another skyscape that focused on the characteristic shapes of clouds and the weather. It was not about the lake at all. 

I wish to thank my fellow physicists for their investigative diligence and for tracking the painting places of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. They have filled in a large number of blank pages in the art history of Canada. Kudos to the Waddingtons and the McElroys! Thank you... We are all in this together!

Now on to more of Tom's art and meteorology in the next Blog. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick, Tom Thomson Post TT-135

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date.

Tom Thomson's "The Hill in Autumn" 1914

My first diagnosis of "The Hill in Autumn" really troubled me! Some subtle inconsistencies bothered me enough that the story did not get published in the first go-round. The puzzle pieces did not fit together as nicely as they should. Was Tom looking east or west? Were the coniferous trees in the centre of the painting in shadow (looking easterly), or were there no deciduous trees there because of soil conditions?

The illumination of the scene was sufficient to bring the colours out of the forest. The sun had to be a least a bit on Tom's back or at least overhead. The clouds were no problem, but I needed to be certain of the direction of view! Was that storm coming or going? Let me explain... please. 

"The Hill in Autumn" Fall 1914
Oil on composite wood-pulp board
8 7/16 x 10 1/2 in. (21.5 x 26.7 cm)
Tom's paint box size, 1914.72

My friends Jim and Sue came to the rescue again! The "paddle in the water explorations" of the Waddingtons were instrumental in correctly solving the riddle of Tom Thomson's "The Hill in Autumn" from 1914. We must also acknowledge Tom Thomson for painting exactly what he saw. Tom did not make anything up! 

The Waddington image from Broncho Island on the left with "The Hill in Autumn" to the right. 

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Tom, along with pretty much every artist I know, will distort the subject to better fit the size of the painting surface that they have available. Tom scrunched the horizontal dimensions, but the details remain unmistakable. 

Jim wrote: "It was quite windy, so I think we tried to land on the north-western end of Broncho Island to take the photo. That was difficult too." 

The photo was taken looking west. The topography matching Tom's painting was unmistakable. 

Jim writes further: "I have since learned from the Voyageur Outfitting site about their island retreat. The Island was once a 'camp' of Tom Wattie, who was an Algonquin Park ranger from 1900-1931. Tom Thomson was also a park ranger at this time and became good friends with Wattie, visiting him often at his camp, now known as the Algonquin Island Retreat."

Bronco Island is on Kawawaymog  Lake, which was formerly known as Round Lake. 

Jim and Sue also observe: "Thomson probably wasn't in the middle of the lake like us but was on one of the islands, presumably Wattie's".

With the viewing direction firmly established, I could make progress on the meteorology in Tom's painting. The skyline was at the lower third of the small panel, so the subject that caught Tom's attention was most certainly the weather. 

It was a windy day as well when Tom made his weather observation. Mares' tail cirrus was overhead in an azure sky. Recall that backlit cirrus is not dark in its centre like more opaque clouds. Cirrus ice crystals are just not present in sufficient density to block the sunlight. 

The shape of the cirrus cloud elements is all we need to establish both the average wind and the deviations from that mean, which sculpt those intricate patterns. It is easiest to just witness the cloud drift across the sky to establish the average wind. The entire mass of moisture simply moves along with the mean flow. For example, I was able to easily follow the motion of the mares' tails depicted in the following graphic, so I knew the direction of the average wind. That is not possible with a still image, but the shape crafted by the relative winds can still reveal the mean. 

The cloud shape revealed that the average wind at cloud level would have been from right to left, as depicted in the painting and in the actual clouds I photographed. Thus, the upper winds were from the north since Tom was looking toward the west (thanks to Jim and Sue). The following graphic details these deductions and will serve as an introduction to cloud watching. Actual mares' tail cirrus are included along with Tom's interpretation of what he witnessed. 

See "A Jet Streak with a Paddle" for an explanation of the atmospheric frame of reference.

The following graphic applies the above concepts to the still images of mares' tails in Tom's "The Hill in Autumn". Remember that clouds are three-dimensional and exist through a depth in the atmospheric ocean, although we only witness planar views, especially in the painting. For example, the green col symbol at the leading edge of the cirrus is probably at a higher level than the swirls sketched. The col and lines of the deformation zone conceptual model must be continuous in the view of the processes on a piece of paper. 

Try to visualize the swirls as three-dimensional vortices tilted forward with the strong winds along. The col at the nose of the cirrus would be as sketched in the graphic. Any ice crystals wafting groundward would be caught in the vortices that flank the local wind maximum embedded within the mean flow. These processes neatly explain the swallow-like appearance of the cirrus uncinus, which is what really attracted Tom's attention in the first place! 

My COMET friends in Boulder could manufacture a wonderful animation of this dynamic structure and make it come alive! For now, please try to play that image in your mind using your Coriolis hand. My efforts to explain this in the weather centre were typically unsuccessful, but I never give up. Also see "A Closer Look at Lines in the Sky" which is one of several explanations of deformation zones and the important role that they play in understanding moisture patterns in any fluid.

I was in the Studio and decided to manufacture a three-dimensional representation of the planar view of mares' tail cirrus. In the image, using my Studio step stool, the wind increases with height from the floor through steps one and two. The strongest wind is in the direction of my mahl stick (circa 1966) positioned at the very top of the stool. 

The wind spins the paper towel rolls in the sense indicated. The "cloudy" white roll to the left (looking downstream) of the local wind maximum spins cyclonically (the red arrow) - the thumb of your Coriolis hand will be pointing up.  The "blue sky" roll to the right (looking downstream) of the local wind maximum spins anticyclonically (the blue arrow). Your Coriolis thumb will be pointing downward.

The wind is strongest at the level of the mahl stick, so both of these rotating vortices are tipped forward with the wind. The moisture is also advanced furthest downstream at this level, represented by the cushion at the tip of the mahl stick. 

Now visualize the ice crystals from the cirrus caught up in these vortices drifting toward the earth - gravity gets us all eventually! I draped the towel sheets to try to represent how that might look. 

The final visualization is a quasi-horizontal cross-section through the towels and mahl stick, integrating what one would see from the ground, seeing all of the different layers of the three-dimensional moisture. 

Now back to "The Hill in Autumn". The wind direction at the surface can be quite different from that revealed by the cirrus above 20,000 feet. In this case, though, we can be quite certain that the winds were brisk and chilly northwesterlies.  

The blue skies and clear visibility were characteristic of a ridge of high pressure over Tom. Air generally subsides ahead of a ridge, and the pressure at the ground rises with the fair weather.  That's why people have barometers on their walls. The air was dry, and there was not even a hint of cumulus clouds under the sunny skies. 

Winds are generally calm in a high-pressure centre. The wind speed inducing the waves that Tom painted would only be found in the anticyclonic flow ahead of the ridge or after the ridge had passed. The former is certainly the case in this situation as the cirrus is not a large deck of cirrostratus but rather isolated, thin mares' tails. Cold air advection is also much more likely to bring the momentum of stronger winds aloft descending to the surface. Recall the constant energy trajectories that air parcels follow, sloping downward to the ground as they head south. See "Isentropic Surfaces - Science and Art Merges" for more explanations and details. 

The other important part of this puzzle can be seen on the western horizon. Bands of rose-coloured cloud stretch along a deformation zone that encloses the warm conveyor belt of an approaching weather system. Tom painted bands of cirrostratus within gravity wave swells being stretched by the deforming flow. 

Like in the ocean, the atmospheric swells propagate outward from the source but are most significant in the same direction as the strong winds that generate them. Using the westerly nature of the jet stream and this fact would be enough to realize that Tom had to be looking toward the approaching storm. I felt that the swells in the cirrostratus might not be sufficient evidence, even though I was convinced. I can be pretty gullible. 

Separately, each puzzle piece described above cannot fully diagnose the weather pattern. However, the pieces can only fit together in one way to make meteorological sense. The following graphic summarizes how the mares' tail cirrus, strong northwesterly upper winds, brisk northwesterly surface winds and distant swells of cirrostratus must fit together. It may not be rocket science, but I still think the story is a blast. 

A similar parade of weather occurred on April 7th, 2025. The sky overhead Singleton included a few patches of mares' tail cirrus, which I watched to establish the northwesterly flow aloft in an earlier graphic. Some cirrostratus was low on the horizon but too subtle for an interesting picture. The sky changed dramatically in just an hour or two. The approaching storm was racing toward the east. The following graphic describes those lines in that sky. Weather is important. 

Here is that same view at noon the following day. Winter had returned to Singleton. The intensity and speed of the weather system could be inferred from those lines in the sky. I spend a lot of time looking up at the sky - time well wasted!

I consulted with my weather friend Johnny Lade.  John made the following excellent observations:

"I always look for the western horizon. Maybe from thirty years of doing weather observations and looking for a deformation zone. In my ground school teaching, I always told my students to notice trends. Always watch the weather on TV and feel the weather.  

So, in your description, the first day of a high is windy, too windy for my pilot friends to go up and do cross countries. The second day and into the third day will be fine before the strong westerlies develop. I have a barometer on the wall by the door in my house to follow trends.

I have favourite clouds. This painting has mare's tails and invading altocumulus! "

John and I spend a lot of time marveling at the weather. We are perpetual students and always happy within our natural laboratory. 

The "The Hill in Autumn" was another painting comprising the very tall stack of panels salvaged from Thomson's Shack in the spring of 1918. Harris and MacDonald enjoyed a relatively easy time naming this work. The painting depicted a prominent hill, and the deciduous trees were the colours witnessed in autumn. There was no need to discuss the clouds in the sky even though they were the subjects of Tom's weather observation. 

The determined investigations of Jim and Sue Waddington were essential to unravel the real story behind Tom Thomson's "The Hill in Autumn". The science comes to life when we can be certain that Tom was looking west while he painted. Thank you!

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp Inscription verso: 
• c., estate stamp; 
• u.l., in graphite, AM; 
• u.l., in graphite, 8; 
• c., in graphite, 6A (or 46A); 
• below stamp, label, in graphite, The Hill in Autumn / 
• 1914-J and in ink, Dr. James MacCallum National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa 

This was another one of those panels that caught the eye of Tom's patron, Jim MacCallum. The good doctor must have made the acquisition when the panel surfaced during the sorting and naming process in the spring of 1918. 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto 
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Bequest of Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto, 1944 

"The Hill in Autumn" as it would have
appeared in Tom's pochade box.

To really appreciate Tom Thomson, it is important to place his art within the context of the times, in addition to the science and the weather. The so-called Great War was raging in Europe and consuming the full attention of his friends. Meanwhile, Tom surrounded himself with the wonders of nature in Algonquin Park. 

In "The Hill in Autumn", Tom actually captured the swallow shapes of the tilted vortices associated with a local wind maximum in the upper atmosphere - cirrus uncinus. This was a skyscape painting. Paint on Tom!

For those interested in a bit more science, I also wrote about "Curly Hook Cirrus" in "Lines and Swirls Explained".  Also in "A Jet Streak with a Paddle" I explained why deformation zones parallel the wind in the entrance region of a local wind maximum. In sharp contrast, the deformation zones are perpendicular to those winds as they decrease downstream from the local wind maximum. These clouds can reveal a lot about the atmosphere. These discussions were a tough sell in the Weather Centre when the pressures of deadlines and workload precluded a more artistic investigation of the "why" behind the clouds.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

PSS: Should you wish to have Creative Scene Investigation applied to one of Thomson's works that I have not yet included in this Blog, please let me know. It may already be completed but not yet posted. In any event, I will move your request to the top of the list. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!