1

Diana Thorneycroft’s Digital Photographs

By Name

The Name of the Class/Course

Professor (Tutor)

University

City

Date
 2

Diana Thorneycroft’s Digital Photographs

The Group of Seven is also known as the Algonquin School and refers to a group of landscape

painters in Canada who were active between 1920 and 1933. The seven artists, Franklin

Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, E. H. MacDonald,

and Frederick Varley, first formed the Group before inviting other landscape artists to join. The

invited artists were A. J. Casson, Edwin Holgate, and LeMoine FitzGerald. The artists influenced

Canadian landscape art that the Group was considered a movement (The Group of Seven, 2020).

The Group of Seven is essential in Canadian art since they were responsible for iconic artworks.

The movement believed in the formation and development of a distinctive Canadian art by

directly contacting nature, which resulted in the Group's development of paintings inspired by

the Canadian landscape mainly by using paint, which contributed to the formation of the first

Canadian National Art Movement. The artists would make Canadian landscapes a popular

spectacle globally. The Canadian National Gallery showcased most of their paintings, which

raised concern about the Gallery's bias, resulting in the development of the Canadian Group of

painters (The Group of Seven, 2020).

Diana Thorneycroft has successfully integrated the Group of Seven images into her photographic

images. She attempts to draw the artists in different scenes while capturing the famous Canadian

landscapes for which the artists were popular. One can identify that Diana's art has been inspired

by the Group of Seven, as there is a perfect intertwining of the landscapes and the horror abound.

The Group of Seven aimed to make an impression on the landscapes, and Diana was keen to

ensure that she captured the entire landscape clearly, from the snowy mountains to the rocky

riverbeds (Thorneycroft, n.d.).

 3

Canadian landscapes are a beautiful phenomenon, but are indicative of underlying risks and

dangers. Thorneycroft's artworks perfectly make a display of familiar landscapes fraught with

anxiety and contradictions by the very essence of the presentation of danger and abounding risks,

such as the presence of wild foxes at a chess game as they howl adjacent to the players who are

comfortable engaging in a game in the wild. Every activity in the photographs, such as sporting,

is marred with graphic images that pose anxiety and stir contradictory thoughts, such as hockey

players on a pitch surrounded by wild bears as they calmly and unperturbedly play. Thorney

disguises the beauty of the landscapes with background dangers and depicted by potential

violence in most of her paintings. Such presentations make the images dark as one attempts to

define the essence of so many risks in environments of fun and calmness. The focal points of the

digital photographs tend to incline towards graphics that magnify an abounding risk or gruesome

occurrences that stirs up anxiety within the viewer.

Diana’s images correspond to the nature of Canadians. While Canadians are peaceful and

organized, there is a lot of uncertainty. Form the photographs, there is a breath-taking nature

background, with people taking part in different activities unperturbed. The potential dangers do

not seem to be a factor for consideration. People are engaging with nature freely, going about

their activities in a carefree manner, which is synonymous with the daily Canadian lives where

such factors as Canadian struggle with healthcare provision and access does not affect the

Canadian lifestyle, as people are wired to operate normally and ostensibly. Moreover, the images

present incredible yet gory circumstances surrounding the individuals. Wild bears and foxes can

be dangerous, as the artist captures a dead or dying man on the ground in one image, from whom

blood flows until it stains the snowy terrain; it is equally valid with Canadians who, despite

belonging and identifying with a beautiful nation and sovereignty, continue in the bubble of
 4

tainted heritage, such as the residential schools' predicament and the Canadian indigenous people

controversies. The images show how just like Canadians, the beautiful nature and surroundings

do not exempt people from the surrounding dangers or clear them from a gory side of history.

Thorney’s landscapes are beautiful, but the beauty does not rid them of any potential risks and

dangers, and as with the Canadians, the people in the artwork seem to have adjusted to the same

(Nimijean, 2018).
 5

References

Nimijean, R. (2018). Introduction: Is Canada back? Brand Canada in a turbulent world.

Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 24(2), 127-138.

The Group of Seven. (2020, April 12). The Group of Seven - Canadian landscape painters from

1920-1933. https://thegroupofseven.ca/

Thorneycroft, D. (n.d.). Group of Seven Awkward Moments. Diana Thorneycroft.

https://dianathorneycroft.com/collections12677/