“We’re all born with an inclination in the genes about who we are and what we’re supposed to do. It’s in the DNA. I had full knowledge as to what my destiny was from a very early age.
I was a painter.”

The first piece of art that Toller ever sold was a pen and ink drawing of an upside-down-hanging-by-its-feet dead chicken. The price was fifteen dollars. In 2025, a Toller Cranston oil painting was sold to an international collector for seventy-thousand dollars. The images and stories of the creative journey that started with a drawing of a dead chicken continue to inspire. The journey, the inspirations, the influences, and the recurrent elements are the focus of this book.

Toller’s tombstone in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is inscribed:
Toller, Artist, Zero Tollerance!, 1949–2015.
No last name – No explanation – No explanation necessary.
He wanted his work to speak for itself.
He wanted people to connect with the paintings.
He wanted people to understand him.

Toller Cranston: Artistic Impressions is an exploration of the artworks of a man who embodied in everything he did, the values of courage, creativity, and expression. He referred to his style as Magic Realism. His paintings are filled with recurring imagery and landscapes almost like the characters of a book. Distinctive. Colourful. Poignant.

To better appreciate his work, it is helpful to become familiar with the thematic elements that were personal to him. Artistic Impressions reveals the artworks with perspectives and observations from the artist who created the work, the gallerists who represented the work, the collectors who fell in love with the work, and the sister who bought for $15 the first piece he ever sold—that pen and ink drawing of a dead chicken that he did at age fifteen.