The life and art of Tom Bjarnason

St. James

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

My uncle, Bjarni Thomas (Tom) Bjarnason, was born on March 24, 1925, the youngest of Gudmundur and Halldora Bjarnason’s eight children. He grew up on Simcoe Street, Arlington Street and Greenwood Place and graduated from Gordon Bell High School, when it was still located on Wolseley (now called Mulvey School).

In 1944, Uncle Tom went to England to serve in the Second World War as an army signalman. Tom returned from the war very ill with pleurisy. After the war, he lived on Belvidere Street, in what would be his last home in Greater Winnipeg.

Tom’s mother, Halldora, herself an artist, suggested that he become an artist, so he studied at the Winnipeg School of Art and Detroit’s Meinzinger Art School and launched a career as an artist and art teacher that spanned half a century. Tom was primarily based in Toronto and Port Hope, Ont., but he also worked in Montreal and in London, U.K.; Stockholm, Sweden; and Reykjavik, Iceland. Tom’s illustrations appeared in many different publications including Reader’s Digest, Chatelaine, the Legion Magazine, the Star Weekly and Weekend Magazine, a syndicated national magazine that was distributed in the Saturday editions of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Tom’s work is a pictorial archive of history. During Manitoba’s 1970 centennial, Tom attended the Threshermen’s Reunion and Rodeo in Austin, Man., and Weekend Magazine ran a two-page spread of his illustrations from the four-day festival on Aug. 1, 1970, with the headline “Machines That Made The Prairies.”

In 1970, the Department of National Defence commissioned Tom to record some of the activities of the armed forces based in West Germany. Five of his paintings from West Germany are now in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, which is also home to four of his works from a 1984 visit to Cold Lake Alberta.

Uncle Tom also designed stamps for Canada Post. In 1978, Tom produced four stamps depicting Canada’s ice breaking ships – the St. Roch, the Chief Justice Robinson, the Labrador, and the Northern Light. In 1982, Tom made a collection of illustrations commemorating the Royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

During his Toronto years, Uncle Tom lived near Maple Leaf Garden and, in 1976-77, he illustrated the cover of The Golden Anniversary 1927-77 Toronto Maple Leafs Fact Book. The illustration was multi-dimensional, featuring Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull. During the 1975-76 season, these four Toronto Maple Leafs had set various team and NHL records.

Uncle Tom visited his Winnipeg family and friends every Christmas. In 2008, Ruby and I had a memorable last visit with him in Belle River, Ont. He died at age 84 died on Aug. 18, 2009.

In 1992, Tom was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the Canadian Association of Photographers and Communications. A park bench on the St. James side of Assiniboine Park remembers Tom.