In the late 1930s, after returning from Nootka to Vancouver, Macdonald became pre-occupied with producing the semi-abstract pieces that he called “thought-forms,” “thought-expressions,” or “modalities.” Publicly, he was still producing and exhibiting landscape paintings but he was also producing his semi-abstract modalities in private. Fall (Modality 16) is one of a number of modality works produced at the time. This work combines a geometric composition with references to the natural world including leaves, a tree trunk and a butterfly. It is possible that Macdonald was influenced by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris, whose work, by this time was also based on geometric shapes.