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Frank
Carmichael was born in Orillia, and was the youngest
member of the original Group of Seven.
Frank
apprenticed to his father's carriage-making business in
Orillia but was not satisfied with this career. In 1911,
he was employed at Grip as an apprentice for $2.50 per
week. Following in the footsteps of Varley, Lismer,
Johnston and Thomson, Carmichael also went to work for
Rous and Mann printing house.
At
the same time, he began classes at the Ontario College
of Art. In 1913, feeling the need for more advanced
training in technique, he went to the Academie Royale
des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. On his return to
Canada, Carmichael was greatly influenced by Tom
Thomson, while they shared space in the Studio Building
in 1914.
While
working with the men who were to form the Group of
Seven, Carmichael was included on weekend sketch trips
and showed great progress. However, a short time later
he married and soon had to devote much of his time and
energy to supporting his family.
It
was not until the major excursions of 1923-24 that
Carmichael once again travelled North with members of
the Group. Between times, he would travel to his home
town of Orillia to sketch on weekends and maybe take a
week in the autumn for relaxing, camping and sketching.
Although
he was one of the original members, he is perhaps more
closely associated with the artists who joined in later
years-Fitzgerald, Casson and Holgate. Carmichael was
always on the fringe of the Group, probably due to the
difference in age and possibly because he worked full
time as a commercial artist. Most members of the Group
seemed to have the attitude that teaching art was an
honourable vocation, but they attached a stigma to
working in the commercial field. This seems rather
ironic considering almost all members started out in
this area. Later in his career, Frank taught at the
Ontario College of Art, where he had studied.
Whether
working as a teacher or commercial artist, Carmichael
loved to spend spare time playing music. As an amateur
musician, he played the flute, cello and bassoon. He was
a brilliant craftsman who prided himself on technique,
but he was also a rhythmic, musical painter. His earlier
works almost resemble tapestries, with their flat
juxtapositions of colour. As he developed as an artist,
he began to emphasize deep, three-dimensional space.
Perhaps Carmichael's
greatest contribution to the Group was in reviving the
neglected art of watercolour painting. He was also a
founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in
Watercolour, of which he was president from 1932 to
1934.
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