Schoolhouse at Halfway Lake, circa 1959

Private Collection, Toronto

While other members travelled all over Canada to paint, A.J. Casson dedicated himself mostly to Ontario, largely due to his career as a designer and his family in Toronto. The artist took many weekend trips to visit and paint rural and remote areas of the province, such as "Schoolhouse at Halfway Lake", depicting a small town north-east of Combermere. Casson would paint a single location over and over again at different times of day and in different seasons. As a result, Casson produced an extensive catalogue of works documenting the Ontario landscape and the unique personalities of each location he visited. This single-mindedness resulted in an intimacy with his subject matter that is stunningly evident in "Schoolhouse at Halfway Lake". Casson paints an Ontario forest at the height of autumn, using his signature solid colours and a restricted palette. This painting was completed in 1959, a few months after Casson held his first one-man show at Roberts Gallery in March of the same year. He then had five more solo exhibitions between 1959 and 1972. This new association with Roberts Gallery allowed the artist freedom from his commercial art career and led to a great period of artistic production for Casson from the 1960s onward.