of painting strongly influenced Carmichael." The influence of Thomson can be seen in Carmichael's initial attempts at capturing clouds and snow; his early efforts show he did not yet understand structure and colour on the same level as Thomson. Carmichael eventually came to favour landscape art, and many of his pieces display an effort to achieve rich colour and design. Besides a few studies in his notes, he produced only a single portrait in oil on canvas in his entire career: Woman in Black Hat, a rendering of an unidentified subject from 1939. Art historian David Silcox praised the painting, writing that it "makes one wish that [Carmichael] had tackled more." Carmichael's final painting, Gambit No. 1, was painted in 1945 and was his only abstract piece. It was his first major canvas since 1942. Art historian Joyce Zemans thought the painting indicated Carmichael was moving in a new direction, though given the timing of the work at the end of his life it is difficult to know whether he would have continued. Montreal artist Kristine Moran wrote favourably of the painting, understanding "Carmichael's desire to push out from under the constraints of the Post-Impressionist landscape style for which the Group of Seven was so well known." Joan Murray was less enthused with the work, writing, "Abstraction was not Carmichael's game and this painting, so influenced by [Lawren] Harris, is not good." Landscape Famous for his watercolours, Carmichael was a passionate landscape painter. Many of his paintings depict the trees, rocks, hills, and mountains of Ontario. His earlier works had flat juxtapositions of colour, but as he matured through the 1920s he emphasized depth and three dimensional space. Early works like the 1920 painting Autumn Hillside display pictorial motifs that became common to his later work. For example, he utilizes effects of distant weather and a partially shadowed foreground. Carmichael's developing maturity is seen in perhaps his most famous work, The Upper Ottawa, Near Mattawa. The painting shows an understanding of the distinct, massive geometric surfaces of rocks, and is also presented from a viewpoint that would come to characterize much of his later work, utilizing height to emphasize time and weather. Beyond simple representation of picturesque views, Carmichael attempted to capture contrast. This is seen in his early work Autumn Foliage Against Grey Rock which compares the rocky landscape to a bright autumnal tree along with a pink and