LAND OF COLOUR

George Paginton arrived in Canada in 1912 at the age of eleven as one of the British home children, and he moved to Toronto at the age of eighteen. Employment in the 1920s as a commercial artist led him to the Ontario College of

Art summer school program, where he developed his love of painting en plein air (outdoors). Paginton worked for the Toronto Daily Star art department from 1927 to 1970, during which time he travelled the country painting landscapes and urban scenes. The top image, Yellow Cloud (oil on canvas board, 29 x 35.5 cm), was painted circa 1948 in Central Canada — possibly near his Etobicoke home on the shore of Lake Ontario — while the lower image, Barkerville (oil and watercolour on canvas board, 40.5 x 50.5 cm), was painted circa 1964, after Paginton had travelled to British Columbia on a newspaper assignment. George Paginton: Painting A Nation, by Sharona Adamowicz-Clements and Darrin J. Martens (Figure 1 Publishing, 160 pages, $40), contains dozens more full-colour images.