In Algonquin Hill Top 4, David Drum presents a richly textured and immersive interpretation of the Algonquin landscape at the height of autumn. The composition is dense and vertical, filled with a tapestry of foliage that rises upward in layered bands of deep forest greens, mossy olives, and brilliant golds. Splashes of burnt orange and crimson punctuate the treeline, suggesting maples turning in peak colour against darker evergreen forms.

Drum’s brushwork is vigorous and expressive. Thick impasto passages build the hillside in tactile layers, particularly in the foreground where pale ochres and sandy creams create a sunlit clearing or rocky outcrop. The paint is applied with energy—scraped, dragged, and layered—giving the surface a palpable physicality that echoes the rugged terrain itself.

Thin, pale trunks—rendered in light blues and whites—cut vertically through the centre, introducing rhythm and structure amid the dense vegetation. The sky above is restrained and cool, a soft blue that allows the saturated foliage below to dominate.

The painting captures not a literal topographical view, but the sensation of standing within an Algonquin hillside in early autumn: thick growth, layered colour, and the quiet vitality of the Canadian Shield. Drum’s approach emphasises movement, texture, and chromatic contrast, creating a landscape that feels alive and immediate rather than static or pastoral.