DON McCALLUM Canadian artist: Painter

Painting on the Skootamata, 1975

Don learned to paint during summers spent at Arden, Ontario, under the direction of Don’s uncle, Clare Barnett. Barnett was a commercial artist with Brigden’s in Toronto, where he worked alongside several members of the Group of Seven; three of his children, Don’s cousins, became commercial artists.

Don took classes at Queen’s with Andre Bieler in the late 1930s and kept on painting during the war overseas in England, France, and Belgium. After the war, he continued studying under Andre Bieler, Goodridge Roberts, and Grant Macdonald.

Through the 1970s and ‘80s, Don had a number of successful shows of his work, at the Brock Street Gallery, the FD (Francoise Duncan) Gallery, the David Brown Gallery, and others. For over a decade, from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, he wrote a column for the Whig-Standard Magazine, profiling the work of a local artist each week. He loved to teach, and led a large group called the Monday Painters from the late 1970s pretty well up until his death. The group mounted an annual show at the Frontenac Public Library each fall.