Tom Wood

Tom Wood (May 02, 1913 October 28, 1997) was a painter, graphic artist, designer and Official War Artist in the Royal Canadian Navy. He was a participant in the D-Day landings.

Career Wood was born in Ottawa and was largely self-taught as an artist but had some training with F.H. Varley and Franklin Brownell at the Ottawa Art Association. He worked as a commercial artist in the 1930s - there are six of Wood's sketchbooks dating from 1933 to 1937 in Library and Archives Canada, mostly of his environs in Ottawa.

He joined the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves on 23 May 1943 at HMCS Carleton in Ottawa. He served in the Directorate of Special Services at naval headquarters in Ottawa where he worked as a designer, then he sailed for England on a troop carrier as an Official War Artist (1944-1946).

Later, he painted 75 works from the photographs that he shot that morning.

After the war he became chief designer at the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission, and finally chief of design and displays for the National Museums of Canada. He also contributed to the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67.