Find out what these two subjects have in common with this powerful presentation by John M. Horton, one of Canada’s Naval War Artists.

John Horton was the first artist appointed to the reinstated Canadian War Art programme, renamed the Canadian Forces Artist’s Programme (CFAP) in 2002 and was sent to join our Navy in the Arabian Gulf aboard HMCS Algonquin.

Since John had been in the Royal Navy in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans and in the Canadian Navy Reserve this exposure to the action and activities in the Arabian Gulf gave him the updated knowledge to record our Navy as it is now. This is so different from when he started as a boy seaman in 1951. Joining Operation Apollo in the Arabian Gulf gave him the opportunity to create paintings that recorded the Canadian Navy’s role in the “War on terrorism”.

Since his Operation Apollo trip John has been at sea aboard more of Canada’s ships – a notable deployment was his 5 week “RIMPAC” trip when he visited ships of 4 of the 8 navies involved in this multinational pacific rim exercise. He has also joined HMCS Windsor in his first submarine voyage and HMCS Vancouver for a special journey from Vancouver WA to Vancouver BC to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Captain Vancouver’s birth. .

So many of the associations of which John is a member wanted to hear about John’s trip to the Arabian Gulf, that he prepare a power point presentation. Researching this talk encouraged John to include information about the beginning of Canada’s war art programmes started by Lord Beaverbrook in 1916. He was also interested in the other war artists and the successive programmes that Canada produced to capture the horror and history of war. The War Museum in Ottawa has supplied pictures for this presentation and you will find it not only informative, but also quite enlightening as to why an artist would go to war and subject themselves to the dangers and depravations.

The talk by John highlights the history of Canada’s various war art programmes from the First and Second World Wars to the present day. We think you will be interested to know that the Canadian Encyclopedia states that Canada was the first country to produce such a programme.

Using images of many other war artists, John’s presentation highlights and promotes the many successes of our fleet and the men and women who have served over the last 100 years. It also gives you a brief history of the Canadian Navy through 15 watercolour sketches that he produced as his application for the 2010 centennial art programme.