Tom Forrestall, beloved Nova Scotia artist and Atlantic realism pioneer, dies at 88
CTV
Tom Forrestall, a celebrated Nova Scotia artist remembered for pioneering the Atlantic realism tradition, died at the age of 88 on Friday.
Tom Forrestall, a celebrated Nova Scotia artist remembered for pioneering the Atlantic realism tradition, died at the age of 88 on Friday.
Forrestall's art won critical acclaim in the 1960s for inspiring a renewed interest in realist painting, and he was known as a pioneer of the Atlantic realism movement along with Mary and Christopher Pratt.
Ray Cronin, writer and art curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, says Forrestall was a "prolific painter," a man who was very generous with his time and encouraging to younger artists.
"Tom was someone who was a very humble artist, but a very good one and very committed," Cronin said of Forrestall in a Saturday interview. He first met Forrestall in 2001 when they worked together at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Forrestall was a lifelong painter and had been making his living from his paintings since the 1960s. While this is a difficult feat for anyone in the art world, Cronin said it was especially impressive for an artist in Atlantic Canada, where there's an even smaller market of art buyers.
"Tom was always very focused on the fact ... that painting is a job like any other and you have to treat it like a job," Cronin said in an interview Saturday.
