17 Facts About Tom Forrestall

Tom Forrestall was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia and studied with Alex Colville at Mount Allison University.

Tom Forrestall was born in Annapolis Valley, now known as Middleton, Nova Scotia on 11 March 1936.

Tom Forrestall was one of four children in a Roman Catholic family.

Tom Forrestall attended high school in Middleton, where he continued drawing and painting.

Tom Forrestall entered Mount Allison University in 1954, having been awarded a scholarship to study art.

In 1959 Tom Forrestall moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick and was hired as assistant curator of the newly opened Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

Tom Forrestall was responsible for cataloguing the museum's holdings and maintaining the resulting accession records.

Tom Forrestall's employment was terminated after he had two epileptic seizures while at work in early 1960.

In 2006 Tom Forrestall appeared as a witness in an ownership dispute between the Beaverbrook UK Foundation and the gallery.

Tom Forrestall testified that he understood from his work as assistant curator and his contact with Beaverbrook that the paintings were "all one big, great gift".

Tom Forrestall's testimony was an important moment in the case, which was decided in the gallery's favour.

Tom Forrestall was one of six artists commissioned to provide murals representing aspects of New Brunswick culture for the Centennial Building, the new provincial office building in Fredericton which opened in 1967.

Tom Forrestall created the mural for the fly tower which was added to the Fredericton Playhouse in 1972.

Tom Forrestall was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1973.

Tom Forrestall's works are held in many Canadian and international galleries and collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Tom Forrestall often made his tempera paintings in shapes that differ from the traditional rectangles and squares.

Tom Forrestall died in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on 15 November 2024, at the age of 88.