Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven are considered Canada's most important landscape artists. Together, they pioneered the movement encouraging Canadian artists to sketch and paint the landscape of Canada.

That Canadian artistic movement began in the spring of 1912 when Tom Thomson, for the first time, arrived at the headwaters of the Oxtongue River at Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. Over the next 5 years, prior to his untimely death in 1917, Thomson was considered by many, including Group of Seven member Arthur Lismer, as the key person behind the movement to sketch and paint the Canadian landscape.

Soon after 1912, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, and Frederick Varley joined Thomson in Algonquin. With Thomson’s help, the artists began to capture on canvas the wilderness they found along the Oxtongue River and in Algonquin Park. Years later, a young A.J. Casson joined the group, and he, too, followed in their footsteps, spending years painting along the Oxtongue.

In 2012, one hundred years after Tom Thomson first arrived along the Oxtongue River, Jean and Bob Hilscher decided to take to the canoe and began their 3-year search for just where Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven might have sketched some of their works of art. During that time, Bob and Jean experienced ever-changing weather, everything from pouring rain in the spring to deep snow in the winter, and, like Thomson, they endured frigid to steamy temperatures. But through their efforts, Bob and Jean came to better understand what the artists had undergone to create their works of art in the wilderness of Canada.

In this documentary, Bob and Jean also spoke with some of Canada’s leading Tom Thomson and Group of Seven art experts, among them Joan Murray. Murray, who was the first curator of Canadian art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, gives great insight into the decisions made by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven to stop painting British cows and instead encourage themselves and other Canadian artists to turn for the first time to paint Canada's landscape. Today, over a 100 years later, their combined efforts have made a major impact, and Canadian artists still come to paint the wilderness of the Oxtongue.

Proceeds from the viewing of this nonprofit film further the efforts of Oxtongue Lake for Arts and Culture (OLAC) to create a better understanding of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

This film is was made possible with the artistic support of the National Gallery of Canada, the Ottawa Art Gallery, the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery of Sarnia, Ontario, the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery of Oshawa, Ontario, Carleton University Art Gallery, and the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre at the University of Guelph, Ontario.