| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Robert McInnis has lived and painted in many regions of the country and has a special affection for the southern Alberta prairie with its tonal ochres. During his lifetime McInnis has also painted the figure in watercolour and oil. At heart, McInnis considers himself a figurative artist in the Maritime tradition of Fred Ross, Millar Brittain, Jack Humphrey, Alex Colville and Christopher Pratt. In addition, as a photographer, the artist has shown a keen appreciation for historical sites, railways and prairie grain elevators.
McInnis has a Diploma in Fine and Applied Arts (1961) from Saint John Vocational School (NB). Noted teachers included Fred Ross and D. Edwin Campbell. From 1961-1971, McInnis served as the head of the Prince George College Art Department before returning to Toronto to begin his “real art career”. Since then, the artist has worked independently with what he once described as a systematic plan to make himself known nationally by “living regionally” as a bold and brushy landscape artist. In doing so, McInnis has had the opportunity to interpret the rural environments of Alberta and eastern Canada especially the picturesque Charlevois region of Quebec. A prolific artist, McInnis’ ouevre also includes a series of railway paintings and more familiarly a large body of work devoted to the female subject. Begun in Toronto in the 1970s, his Women in Interiors series is an example of what the artist termed Expressive Realism where his best results convey feeling rather than just being descriptive. Public collections containing his work include Hart House (U of T, Toronto, ON), the Glenbow Museum & Nickle Galleries (Calgary, AB), Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON), the New Brunswick Museum (Saint John, NB) and the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton, AB).
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