Roland Gissing

Roland Gissing (May14, 1895 September29, 1967) was a painter whose subject was the western Canadian landscape. His paintings are today in The Royal Collection, and other public collections. He studied at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, Scotland. Inspired by cowboy movies, he moved to western Canada in 1913, and for ten years he worked as a ranch hand in southern Alberta and the southwestern U.S.A. He returned to Calgary and in 1924, settled near Cochrane, Alberta. There, a chance meeting with C. W. Jefferys, who was visiting the Mortimer Ranch in Alberta which was near Gissing's home, encouraged him as an artist.

In 1929 Gissing had his first solo show in Calgary, then opened his own gallery. Even with the arrival of The Depression in Canada Gissing stayed in Calgary but in 1931 he returned to Cochrane where he married and continued to paint. From 1931 to 1934 he exhibited with the Art Association of Montreal. In 1934 and 1935 he showed his work at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1944 Gissing had a destructive fire which razed his home and studio but he recovered, rebuilt and painted again. the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, among others.