Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canadian artist George Franklin Arbuckle attended the Ontario College of Art from 1927 to 1930 where he studied under J.W. Beatty, F.S. Challener, J.E.H. MacDonald and others. In 1930, he left to establish his own studio and earned a living selling his paintings and teaching art classes. During World War II, Arbuckle decided to work as a commercial artist. He was employed by Bomac Engravers for several years in Ottawa and Montreal and returned to freelance work in 1944

During the war, he worked for the engraving firm Bomac, in Toronto in 1940 and 1941 and in Montréal from 1941 to 1944. His reputation as an illustrator was based on the knowledge of historical subjects that he depicted in series for Hudson’s Bay Company and commissions for Labatt Brewery, Distillers Corporation and Dow Chemicals. Arbuckle’s landscape paintings and busy cityscapes were reproduced on the covers of Maclean’s magazine, and he showed his work in important exhibitions in Canada and abroad. He also produced murals and tapestries for clients, including the Château Champlain Hotel, in Montréal.

Arbuckle was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists in 1933 and to the Association of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1936, finally becoming a full member in 1943. He spent most of his life in his native Toronto, with an interlude in Montreal from 1940 to 1958. His wife was fellow artist, Frances Ann Johnston and his father-in-law, Frank Johnston, was a founding member of the Group of Seven.