Jock Macdonald’s artistic career in Canada, which spanned from 1926 until his death in 1960, saw various transformations in style. Starting off as a colleague of Frederick Varley at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, his early landscapes were very much influenced by the Group of Seven aesthetic. In struggling to find a form of artistic expression which reflected his spiritual interests, Macdonald starting experimenting with abstraction as early as the late 1930’s. He was influenced by the principles of surrealism and automatism as well as by a trip to Europe in 1954-55, where he met French artist Jean Dubuffet. In 1957, William Ronald introduced him to Lucite 44, a free flowing and quick drying material that allowed Macdonald to work with oil much as he had with watercolour. It was the work produced using this material that best represent the artist’s artistic vision. Jock Macdonald, along with the other members of the Painters Eleven, struggled for the acceptance of abstraction in Toronto and his influence, both as an artist and a teacher, was felt widely.