The Artist
Trained as a fine art restorer, conservator, and guilder by the long-established firm of Aitken, Dott and Son in Edinburgh, Thomas Robertson was encouraged through this experience to become an artist himself.

Leaving his native Scotland, he studied at the Epsom School of Art and Design in England, gaining expertise in screen printing as well as developing his hand as a portrait artist and landscape painter. While visiting Vancouver Island in 1982, Robertson found himself drawn in by the mural project. He volunteered his time, energy and artistic skill in executing the fourth mural in the endeavour, to be painted on the fire hall tower.

Fallers Undercutting a Fir was Robertson's first larger-than-life painting.

The Art
Working as a team, fallers cutting a coastal giant had to stand at the same elevation. This was made almost impossible by the rough ground and steep slopes of the rainforest. To overcome the difference in heights, and to get above the sometimes massive flaring butt of a tree, springboards were used.

Made from yellow cedar planks, and iron tipped, these were wedged into notches in the tree. Each faller would stand upon a springboard, and wield his double-edged falling axe with precision. A thin-bladed, two-handled, cross-cut saw, eight feet in length, was shared between them to complete the job.

Dangling from the lower part of the tree being cut was an oil bottle with a sharp hook fastened to its neck. It was often corked with a piece of grooved fir bark. When the saw complained with the heat of friction, oil would be sprinkled along the blade.