Artist Information
Artist
Brian Travers-SmithRole
PainterDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Tangshan, China, Brian Travers-Smith is a Canadian painter, educator and leader in the art community, and has lived in Victoria, B.C. since 1956. During World War II, the family were isolated in a remote area of North China. A young Travers-Smith spent time sketching birds and learning from his engineer uncle who also painted watercolours. After the war, when the family came to Canada, he went to Brentwood College and Victoria College and then on to study at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto.
He worked full-time at Canada Trust doing his painting at night. However, inspired by an artist friend, he later resigned and built a home studio initiating an active and successful period of painting in the 1960s and 1970s. His primary medium is watercolour and he is known for his marine scenes with such subjects as boats, docks and shorelines. Travers-Smith served as president of the board of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and also on the boards of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver) and the Northwest Watercolor Society (Seattle). He was also a member of Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, the Federation of Canadian Artists and the American Watercolour Society. Due to concerns about his eyesight, he retired from painting in 1983.
