Rugged Country, Pointe-au-Baril, 1967

Heffel Fine Art, auction, Toronto, 31 May 2014, lot 305 Private Collection, Toronto

Hubert De Santana, ‘A Painter’s Life: A.J. Casson looks back on 60 years at the easel’, “Canadian Art”, Spring 1985, pages 64-69 Margaret Gray, Margaret Rand and Lois Steen, “A.J. Casson”, Agincourt, Ontario, 1976, pages 5, 8, 27, 50

As a professional working designer, A.J. Casson often took his painting trips within the boundaries of Ontario on weekends, visiting rural and remote areas of the province. Whereas some of his Group colleagues travelled across Canada on extensive sketching trips, Casson was more limited to Ontario and nearby areas of Quebec given the realities of his career and family. He also stated: “I love travelling, but I can’t paint in a strange place. So why run all over?” As a result, Casson produced an extensive catalogue of works documenting the Ontario landscape and the unique personalities of each town, village and hamlet he visited. He would paint a single location over and over again at different times of day and in different seasons. This single mindedness resulted in an intimacy with his subject matter that is stunningly evident in “Rugged Country, Pointe‒au‒Baril”. The oil painting depicts a unique detailed view of a mountaintop, with grassy and rocky slopes, a dense forest, and a clear blue sky save for a cluster of white clouds. In his early career, Casson sought to depict more populated towns in Ontario in order to differentiate himself from his fellow Group of Seven members. “Rugged Country, Pointe‒au‒Baril”, however, painted in his mature career, portrays the most exemplary of the Group’s subjects: the uninhabited vast wilderness of Georgian Bay. Pointe‒au‒Baril is a small village, popular with cottagers, on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, in the Parry Sound district. Casson paints an Ontario forest at the height of summer, using his signature solid colours and a restricted palette. Of his bright and minimal colours, Casson said: “I’ve never liked using every colour of the rainbow. Before I start a canvas, I have definite colour scheme in mind... Lawren Harris and Carmichael always worked to a scheme too.” In “Rugged Country, Pointe‒au‒Baril”, Casson’s restricted palette is evident, containing multiple shades of green, in addition to muted grey and pale blue.