Though never a formal member, he inspired the Group of Seven with vibrant oil sketches and iconic works. The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933 painting Canadian landscapes.
His initial oil paintings are quite meticulously realist, even sketches such as The Canoe (1912). He was to become very familiar with paddling in open canoes like this one over the following years.
