Homer Watson had an emotional, even spiritual connection to trees. He noted that “It is like losing old friends once the trees go”[1] and even referred to tree cutting as “tree butchering”[2].

One of the artists’ most noticeable characteristics was his deep, soul-satisfying love of trees, and with the exception of a few allegorical subjects, trees have been the motif in every composition. The great hardwoods of his native Doon, the oaks and elms, the beeches and maples, he painted with sympathy and understanding, arrangements simple in design but wonderfully fine in pattern and infused with depth and movement.[3]

One of his favourites was an old elm on his property, and a family story goes that Homer sat outside with a shotgun when neighbour Jacob Cluthe threatened to have it cut down.[4] The elm wouldn’t meet its end until 1954, when its massive trunk began to spilt and was at risk of falling onto the parked cars of Doon School students.[5]

His passion eventually extended outside of his artwork and into what we would refer to as environmentalism.

Homer lived during an age where the landscapes of rural Ontario were drastically changing. Art historian Brian Foss speculates that the reoccurring imagery of decaying mills found in Homer’s artwork can be read as both nostalgic of  pioneer life as well as “displaying the consequences of upsetting balance between human needs and nature’s capacity to regenerate itself.”[6] Technological advancements such as the implementation of telephone poles and wiring throughout the countryside were also upsetting to the artist, and he expressed publicly in the Galt Daily Reporter that the land’s “beauty spots” had been “sacrificed to cold materialism”.[7]

We have sleet storms and wind, but the elements are mild in their power of destruction compared with telephone, telegraph, and last and worst, the Hydro-Electric butchers; for nature, if left alone, would soon mend what she mars. It makes one rage to see to see how apparently wanton these men can be.[8]

Aside from his beloved elm, one of the areas that Homer was most protective of was Cressman’s Woods. It was originally owned by the Cressman family, descendants of early Swiss settlers in North America who had maintained the area of unique trees for several years. Canada yew, white pine, hickory, yellow birch, beech, white elm, black cherry, prickly ash and more were all a part of the tract.[9]