I know the painting is familiar to you – that’s Lake Superior III  (1923-24) by Lawren Harris, of course – but do you recognize the smiling woman standing next to it? If not, you may soon. She is once again a frequent, appreciative, and highly informed visitor to our Canadian collection.

Nancy Lang led the research and co-produced West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson – the award-winning film by White Pine Pictures that is available, in DVD form, in the AGO gift shop. Now she is deep in research for what amounts to the follow-up, a 90-minute film with the working title of Spirit Land: In Search of the Group of Seven.

“Art is a realm of life between our mundane world and the world of the spirit,” once said Lawren Harris. It was his 1918 trip to Algoma that helped his circle of artist friends – grieving the death of Tom Thomson in Algonquin Park the year before, and coping with their World War I experiences – to regroup, and eventually emerge as the Group of Seven.

Spirit Land will highlight the work of three people – authors/wilderness photographers Joanie and Gary McGuffin and art historian Michael Burtch – to find and photograph the precise location of each Group of Seven painting in the Algoma area and on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

The film will include historical re-enactments, voice-over and archival material, along with many, many of the paintings – probably including this one, Harris’ Islands, Lake Superior (1921).

“We’re looking for the locations and paintings with the richest cluster of materials to go with them,” explains Nancy. She has strong background for the hunt: she studied next door at OCAD, and has a passion for learning, and telling, our Canadian stories.

The AGO was a generous supporter of the West Wind film, waiving licensing for the use of paintings in the film (as did the National Gallery, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Tom Thomson Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery). Our collections may be an important resource for Spirit Land as well, which is due to be premiered at the Algoma Art Gallery in June 2015 and shown on TVOntario that same fall.

Though Nancy is focused on the Group of Seven these days, she can’t resist a visit to the Tom Thomson gallery before she leaves. She stands before Spruce and Tamarck (1916), cocks her head, and smiles.

“The story goes that Thomson had returned from a sketching trip and laid out his ‘boards’- that’s what he called his paintings –  around Mowat Lodge to dry,” she explains. “A young girl who was working there came along, pointed at one of them and said, ‘That’s just what the tamaracks looked like two weeks ago!’ Evidently Thomson was so pleased. That’s all he wanted – to paint what he saw and show us what these places really looked like.”

•  www.whitepinepictures.com – click on Documentary, for more about West Wind and Spirit Land, among other projects
•  www.tomthomsonart.ca – the digital companion to West Wind, with a rich collection of images and of biographical/curatorial/archival research material. It is also the template for the website White Pine intends to build for Spirit Land.