{{Short description|Canadian realist painter (1936–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Tom Forrestall | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|size=100%|CM|ONS}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Thomas DeVany Forrestall | birth_date = {{birth date|1936|3|11|df=y}} | birth_place = Middleton, Nova Scotia, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|2024|11|15|1936|3|11|df=y}} | death_place = Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada<ref name="patil">{{cite news |last=Patil |first=Anjuli |date=15 November 2024 |title=Celebrated Nova Scotia artist Tom Forrestall dies at age 88 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/celebrated-nova-scotia-artist-tom-forrestall-dies-age-88-1.7385035 |work=CBC News |location=Nova Scotia |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=1 April 2026}}</ref> | education = | alma_mater = Mount Allison University | known_for = Painter | notable_works = | style = Realist | movement = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = | family = | awards = Order of Canada (1986) | elected = Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1973) | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }}
'''Thomas DeVany Forrestall''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|ONS}} (11 March 1936 – 15 November 2024) was a Canadian realist painter. Forrestall was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia and studied with Alex Colville at Mount Allison University. He became a fulltime professional artist in 1960. His works, chiefly painted in watercolour or egg tempera, are held by major galleries throughout Canada.
==Early life and education== Forrestall was born in Annapolis Valley, now known as Middleton, Nova Scotia on 11 March 1936.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Cronin |first=Ray |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/halifax-art-and-artists/ |title=Halifax Art & Artists: An Illustrated History |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4871-0315-6 |location=Toronto}}</ref> He was one of four children in a Roman Catholic family. As a child he developed epilepsy and began having seizures at the age of seven. From 1942 until 1951 the family lived in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where Forrestall's father, a carpenter, was employed in the construction of a new hospital. During this period he participated in art classes given by Nova Scotia College of Art students. Forrestall attended high school in Middleton, where he continued drawing and painting.<ref name=Bernard>{{Cite news| pages = C1| last = Barnard| first = Elissa| title = The makings of an artist| work = Chronicle-Herald| location = Halifax, N.S., Canada| date = 9 September 2019| url = https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/lifestyles/the-makings-of-artist-tom-forrestall-350192/}}</ref>
Forrestall entered Mount Allison University in 1954, having been awarded a scholarship to study art.<ref name=agns>{{Cite web| title = Tom Forrestall | work = Art Gallery of Nova Scotia| accessdate = 5 January 2023| url = https://www.artgalleryofnovascotia.ca/tom-forrestall}}</ref> His studio teachers were Lawren P. Harris, the Fine Arts department head, Ted Pulford, who taught watercolour painting, and Alex Colville.<ref name=":0" /> Colville introduced him to egg tempera, the medium in which he specialized from the 1960s onwards.<ref name=hammock>{{Cite journal| volume = 52| issue = 213| pages = 4–5| last = Hammock| first = Virgil| title = Tom Forrestall: Paintings, Drawings, Writings/Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, June 14 to November 2008| journal = Vie des Arts| url = https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/va/2008-v52-n213-va1503697/62109ac.pdf | date = 2008}}</ref> Colville described Forrestall as "the most promising artist our school has produced in a decade."<ref name = poitras>{{Cite book| publisher = Goose Lane Editions| isbn = 978-0-86492-553-4| last = Poitras| first = Jacques| title = Beaverbrook : A Shattered Legacy| location = Fredericton, N.B., Canada| date = 2007}}</ref>{{rp|120}} After graduating in 1958 Forrestall was awarded a Canada Council grant which allowed him to travel in Europe.<ref name="agns" />
==Career== In 1959 Forrestall moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick and was hired as assistant curator of the newly opened Beaverbrook Art Gallery.<ref name=":0" /> He was responsible for cataloguing the museum's holdings and maintaining the resulting accession records. His employment was terminated after he had two epileptic seizures while at work in early 1960.<ref name="poitras" />{{rp|120}} In 2006 Forrestall appeared as a witness in an ownership dispute between the Beaverbrook UK Foundation and the gallery. The Foundation claimed that a number of valuable paintings had not been given to the gallery by Lord Beaverbrook, but were only on loan. Forrestall testified that he understood from his work as assistant curator and his contact with Beaverbrook that the paintings were "all one big, great gift".<ref name="poitras" />{{rp|238}} His testimony was an important moment in the case, which was decided in the gallery's favour.<ref name = Klinkenberg>{{Cite news| last = Klinkenberg| first = Marty| title = Fredericton gallery settles ownership dispute over $100 million worth or art| work = New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal| location = Saint John, NB| date = 15 September 2010}}</ref>
Forrestall was a fulltime artist from 1960 onwards. In that year the New Brunswick government commissioned a painting by him as a wedding present for Princess Margaret.<ref name = scheme>{{Cite news| last = Scheme| first = Frank H.| title = The Art of Tom Forrestall| work = Reader's Digest Canada| accessdate = 5 January 2023| date = 10 May 2022| url = https://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/canada/tom-forrestall/}}</ref> He was one of six artists commissioned to provide murals representing aspects of New Brunswick culture for the Centennial Building, the new provincial office building in Fredericton which opened in 1967. Forrestall's work was a sheet metal construction depicting farming.<ref name = Lerouxbook>{{Cite book| publisher = New Brunswick Museum| isbn = 978-0-919326-77-4| last = Leroux| first = John| title = 1967 : New Brunswick's Centennial Building murals = Les murales de l'édifice du Centenaire du Nouveau-Brunswick| location = Fredericton, N.B.| date = 2017}}</ref>{{rp|32}}
thumb|300px|right|The Fredericton Playhouse with Forrestall's fly tower mural Forrestall created the mural for the fly tower which was added to the Fredericton Playhouse in 1972. The mural, which resembles "an enormous colourful box resting atop a Georgian-style theatre", made the Playhouse "one of the most recognizable [buildings] in Atlantic Canada".<ref name="flytower">{{cite journal |title=A brief history of the Fredericton Playhouse Fly Tower |journal=Grid City Magazine |date=29 June 2022 |url=http://www.gridcitymagazine.com/a-brief-history-of-the-fredericton-playhouse-fly-tower/ |access-date=6 January 2023 |location=Fredericton}}</ref>
Forrestall was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1973.<ref name = dartmouth>{{Cite web| title = Tom Forrestall Art for Evergreen Fundraiser (Updated)| work = Dartmouth Heritage Museum| accessdate = 5 January 2023| date = 18 December 2018| url = https://www.dartmouthheritagemuseum.ns.ca/2018/12/18/tom-forrestall-art-for-evergreen-fundraiser/}}</ref> In 1974 he collaborated with the poet Alden Nowlan on a book entitled ''Shaped by This Land'', in which 54 poems were juxtaposed with 76 paintings and sketches.<ref name = canlit>{{Cite journal| issue = 68–69| pages = 150–152| last = Cameron| first = Barry| title = Artistic schizophrenia| journal = Canadian Literature| date = 1976 | url = https://canlit.ca/article/artistic-schizophrenia/}}</ref>
In 1986 Forrestall's portrait of Pierre Trudeau's three sons, which had been commissioned by the Canadian government, was presented to the former prime minister as a gift from the nation.<ref name=trudeau>{{Cite news| pages = A8| title = Trudeau finally receives painting | work = Toronto Star| location = Toronto | date = 3 June 1986}}</ref>
A major retrospective of Forrestall's work at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 2008 included work from the 1950s to 2007. The exhibition subsequently travelled to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, and the Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University, Forrestall's alma mater.<ref name="hammock" />
In 2015 the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and Mercedes-Benz Canada collaborated on the exhibition ''A Car for All Seasons''. Forrestall spent six months in a Dartmouth automobile showroom painting the 1980 Mercedes-Benz 300 SD four-door sedan that he had owned and driven from 1980 until 2012 with images of the changing seasons.<ref name="carbook">{{cite book |last1=Forrestall |first1=Tom |title=A Car for All Seasons |date=2015 |publisher=Beaverbrook Art Gallery |location=Fredericton |isbn=9780920674895}}</ref><ref name="mbca">{{cite web |title=Tom Forrestall's "A Car For All Seasons" exhibited at renowned New Brunswick Beaverbrook Art Gallery |url=https://media.mercedes-benz.ca/releases/tom-forrestalls-a-car-for-all-seasons-exhibited-at-renowned-new-brunswick-beaverbrook-art-gallery |publisher=Mercedes-Benz Media Newsroom Canada |access-date=7 January 2023 |date=9 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="cbc">{{cite news |title=Tom Forrestall: A car for all seasons exhibit |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tom-forrestall-a-car-for-all-seasons-exhibit-1.2990482 |access-date=9 January 2023 |agency=CBC News |date=11 March 2015}}</ref>
Forrestall's works are held in many Canadian and international galleries and collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.<ref name="godard">{{cite web |title=Tom Forrestall |url=https://godardgallery.com/artists/15-tom-forrestall/ |website=Mira Godard Gallery |access-date=6 January 2023}}</ref> The Beaverbrook Art Gallery received a "generous and momentous gift of 270 sketchbooks" from the artist.<ref name="carbook" /> A further collection of 100 sketchbooks was exhibited at St. Thomas University in Fredericton in 2022 and 2023.<ref name = rudderham>{{Cite news| last = Rudderham| first = Hannah| title = A lifetime of sketchbooks illuminate Tom Forrestall's artistic journey| work = CBC New Brunswick| accessdate = 6 January 2023| date = 3 December 2022| url = https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/lifetime-sketchbooks-tom-forrestall-1.6668066}}</ref>
==Style and artistic media== Forrestall's work is in the realist tradition. His main media were egg tempera and watercolour painting.<ref name=canencyc>{{Cite encyclopedia| last = Murray| first = Joan| title = Thomas DeVany Forrestall| encyclopedia = The Canadian Encyclopedia| accessdate = 7 January 2023 | date = 2013| url = https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/thomas-devany-forrestall}}</ref> He often made his tempera paintings in shapes that differ from the traditional rectangles and squares.<ref name="hammock" /> A 2016 exhibition of landscapes and interiors was described as expressing "distinct moments of stillness and movement in quiet, discreet places; in nature, in home and in human consciousness"<ref name = teper>{{Cite web| last = Teper| first = Nika| title = Tom Forrestall's recent works at Mira Godard Gallery| work = ARTORONTO.CA| accessdate = 7 January 2023| date = 2016| url = https://www.artoronto.ca/?p=35194}}</ref>
Forrestall's over 400 sketchbooks, which he began when still in his teens, contain "drawings, small wash paintings, and writings on his art and life".<ref name="hammock" /> Tom Smart, who curated a major Forrestall retrospective exhibition, remarked in 2022 that the existence of this "continuous" set of notebooks, spanning a period of 70 years, is "amazing".<ref name="rudderham" />
==Death== Forrestall died in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on 15 November 2024, at the age of 88.<ref>{{cite news |title=Celebrated Nova Scotia artist Tom Forrestall dies at age 88 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6566552 |access-date=16 November 2024 |publisher=CBC News |date=15 November 2024}}</ref><ref name="patil"/>
==Honours== *Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (elected 1973)<ref name="dartmouth" /> *Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977)<ref name="louis">{{cite web |title=Tom Forrestall |url=https://www.elliottlouis.com/index.cfm?menuitem=artistbio&artistnum=429 |website=The Elliott Louis Gallery |access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref> *Member of the Order of Canada (1986)<ref name="order">{{cite web |title=Mr. Thomas DeVany Forrestall |url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-14360 |website=The Governor General of Canada |access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref> *125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1992)<ref name="dartmouth" /> *Order of Nova Scotia (2007)<ref name="dartmouth" /><ref>{{cite web |title=5 Nova Scotians named to Order |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/5-nova-scotians-named-to-order-1.675363 |website=CBC.ca |access-date=21 January 2023 |date=3 October 2007}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*Duval, Paul. (1974). ''High realism in Canada''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin. *Smart, Tom (2008). ''Tom Forrestall : paintings, drawings, writings''. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 978-1554-7000-59
==External links== *[https://godardgallery.com/usr/library/documents/publications/forrestall-2016-excatalogue_new.pdf ''Tom Forrestall: Recent Works'' (exhibition catalogue)] *[https://godardgallery.com/artists/15-tom-forrestall/ Tom Forrestall at the Mira Godard Gallery] *[https://vimeo.com/435349896 Tom Forrestall's video greeting to his ''Chuck and Fetch'' exhibition, July 2020]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrestall, Tom}} Category:1936 births Category:2024 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian male painters Category:21st-century Canadian painters Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Members of the Order of Nova Scotia Category:Mount Allison University alumni Category:Realist painters Category:Artists from Nova Scotia Category:20th-century Canadian male artists Category:21st-century Canadian male artists Category:People from Middleton, Nova Scotia Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts