Comments of Tomhu Huron Roberts . “He had incredible optimism to dare advertise as an artist, one wonders where he could expect to find patrons. Small oil landscaped in the Vancouver City Museum picture tall Douglas firs still growing on Granville St. He loved landscaped with atmospheric effects: on grey days, for example, he could obtain greater illusions of depth by sharp forground against vague distance.” “The New Dominion” (book) 1867-1910″
Roberts, one of the earliest of the mainland’s settlers, was searching for an accomodation of his traditional style to aspects of the landscape that were new to the experience.” – The late nineteenth cnetury saw the opening of the transcontinental railway and a great influx of settlers and exuberant artists to the West Coast from Europe and eastern Canada. -(Also in this book is misinformation about Tomtu as being from Wales as was known later the father dairies indicate him born in Collinwood, Ontario but they did go to Wales when he was a infant but ending up coming back to Canada to live in Toronto and then Vancouver” “From Desolation to Splendor” (book) Maria Tippett & Douglas Cole
“He was influenced by the artist John Constable. The pages of his notebooks are filled with on-line sketches, especially of changing skies, and notations about the angle of the sun and exact colorations. These give a rare insight in the man and his preoccupation with his work, and are much more powerful that the finished oil paintings. “The Marketing of a Gentleman artist” – Tomtu H. Roberts -(news article) Brenda
Druidical Quest with Dale Bertrand, An Intuitive Journey 