“Before Reg went back to England he painted a small watercolour for me.  It was his last painting.  It took all of 5 minutes and he did it to show me how easy it was to do.”

Quotation from the late Phillip Hilcox

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This Weblog was created to answer questions about the life of Tavistock’s resident artist Reginald Franklin Selfe and to feature some samples of his work.

The life history of Reg Selfe was compiled by Tim Mosher in his Spring semester (1994) at Guelph University (Ontario, Canada). Tim, now a school teacher, is a former Tavistock resident who completed this monumental project entitled “The Life and Work of Reginald Franklin Selfe” as his selected topic in fine arts.

Tim’s research took him closer to the artist than anyone had come in the 34 years since his death by way of former friends, colleagues and students. Along the way he compiled a catalogue of some 142 known paintings by Mr. Selfe along with a history of his life and work. An outline of the written history can be read in the about tab.

Since, then more and more paintings have come to light and catalogued. A special showing of Reg Selfe’s work was featured at the 2006 Annual Meeting and Open House for the Tavistock and District Historical Society when some 56 paintings were on display.

If you have a painting by Reginald Franklin Selfe, and would like to see it on this web site, please contact the webmaster.

Paintings of mountains, lakes and rivers from different areas of Canada as well as some documented English locations are a much sought after subject.