Richard Gorman’s work of the 1970s and 1980s demonstrates the ongoing relevance of a response to the land in contemporary Canadian art. Gorman acknowledges the legacy of the Group of Seven’s vision of the landscape in the trilogy of works entitled, respectively, Before the Fall, The Fall (Homage to Tom Thomson), and this piece, Real Life (After the Fall). The idea of fall refers, on one hand, to the season, and on the other, to Tom Thomson’s death by drowning in 1917. The works are a study of the light and colour of the changing seasons; Gorman’s gestural splattering and deep layering of paint draws attention to the painted surface as a kind of landscape and indeed mimics the accumulation of organic debris on the forest floor.

Gorman was born in Ottawa and studied at the Ontario College of Art under Jock Macdonald. Following his graduation, his work was represented by the Issacs Gallery, Toronto. In 1965 he went to England where he worked as a graphic artist, returning to Canada in 1971.