Off Shore Breeze - L’Anse Au Griffon

Thomas Keith Roberts was born in 1909 in Toronto, Ontario, into a family with deep artistic roots. His mother, Frieda Humme, was an artist who had studied under J.W.L. Forster, and her father, Julius Humme, was an original member of the Ontario Society of Artists. His father, Percy Roberts, was proprietor of the Roberts Art Gallery, which had been founded by Tom's grandfather, Samuel Roberts, in 1842.

From early boyhood, Roberts spent considerable time at the gallery and developed ambitions of becoming an artist. He studied for three years at Toronto's Central Technical School under Peter Haworth, Charles Goldhammer, Robert Ross, and Carl Schaeffer, followed by one year at the Ontario College of Art under F.S. Challener, J.W. Beatty, Yvonne McKague Housser, and Fred Haines.

By 1928, Roberts was established as a freelance artist in commercial and fine art. He painted landscapes on location, mainly outdoors, which were selected for Christmas cards by companies including Rous and Mann Limited, Coutts Limited, and Warwick Brothers. He worked in watercolours, oils, and later acrylics, depicting northern landscapes, town and country scenes in Ontario, and subjects in Quebec and the Maritimes.

Roberts' influences were derived from French Impressionists, the Group of Seven, and particularly J.W. Beatty, who had preceded the Group of Seven in discovering Northern Ontario as subject matter. Beatty's influence on using brighter colors was clearly evident in Roberts' work.

During World War II, Roberts served with the Royal Canadian Engineers as a sapper from 1942-43, assigned to architectural drafting. In his spare time, he portrayed army life through quick pencil sketches and watercolor paintings. After a year in the army, he returned to civilian life and resumed his full-time artistic career.

Over the years, Roberts moved towards simpler designs and abstracted compositions. His rural scenes often featured children on their way to and from school or at play in all seasons. He became well known for his winding woodland roads edged with maple, birch, spruce, and pine. In 1944, he won the Ralph, Clarke, Stone Award at the Ontario Society of Artists annual exhibition.

Roberts was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1944) and an Associate Member of the Royal Canadian Academy (1945). By the mid-1980s, he had held over thirty solo exhibitions in Toronto alone. His work is held in numerous collections including the London Public Library and Art Museum, University of Western Ontario, Art Gallery of Hamilton, and many corporate and private collections. Roberts died in 1998.