Selwyn Hanington Dewdney (October 22, 1909November 18, 1979) was a Canadian writer, illustrator, artist, activist and pioneer in both art therapy and pictography. Early life Selwyn Hanington Dewdney was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, on October 22, 1909, and was the son of the Anglican bishop of the diocese of Keewatin. His family moved to Kenora, Ontario, in 1924 and he received his secondary education there. He attended the University of Toronto where he received a general Bachelor of Arts in astronomy and English. In the summer of 1928, he accompanied his father on a 3,800 mile journey to visit the Ojibway and Cree missions in Northern Ontario. Much of this venture was travelled by canoe. This experience established his interest in native culture and love of the bush in the Canadian Shield. In 1932, he attended the Ontario College of Education and received a High School Assistant's Certificate and Art Specialists Certificate. He also took a course in landscape painting. Later life In 1933, he was hired by the Geological Survey of Canada, and was assigned to survey the transition zone between the Precambrian formations of the Canadian Shield and the Hudson Bay lowlands. Among the muskeg and blackflies, he sketched the landscape and produced pencil portraits of the traverse crew at the survey camp. His inspiration as an artist came from the great northern landscapes that he loved to visit. His dramatic style is quite similar to that of the Group of Seven. In 1934, he attended the Ontario College of Art, graduating with honors, and moved to London, Ontario. Family In 1936, he married Irene Donner in a ceremony conducted by his father. Their honeymoon was a 500-mile canoe trip loop from Kenora to Red Lake. Their children were: Donner Dewdney, a child psychiatrist, known for discovering the facial distortion effect among schizophrenic children Alexander Dewdney, a mathematician, author, conservationist, environmental scientist and naturalist Peter Dewdney, a photographer and gold prospector Christopher Dewdney, an award-winning poet and non-fiction author; and Teaching In 1936, he began teaching at Sir Adam Beck Secondary School, London, Ontario, but resigned in protest at the demotion of a colleague in 1945. This experience was the subject of his first novel, Wind Without Rain. Commissioned Works One of the first London artists to paint abstracts in the 1940s and early 1950s, Dewdney painted a number of murals on commission for several clients, including