Carl Schaefer can be understood as a regionalist, not in the sense of an affiliation to a particular movement, but in his commitment to a specific place that holds a personal meaning to him. For two decades, beginning in the 1920s, Schaefer painted in the farming and manufacturing community of Hanover, where he was raised. Though he did not have the nationalist outlook of the Group of Seven, and preferred to paint rural landscapes, Schaefer considered the Group his main influence. It was on the suggestion of Franklin Carmichael that Schaefer began painting seriously in watercolour, a medium that was well suited to his artistic expression. Wheatfield and Woodlot demonstrates the key elements of Schaefer’s style with its bright colours, broad areas of paint, and spontaneity of paint handling.