The book begins with a description of the impression Canada made on Gissing upon his arrival in this country in 1913 at the age of 18. Gissing wanted to be a cowboy. He travelled from Alberta to California and back on horseback, sketching and painting as he went. Examples of this early work appear in the book. Gissing began selling his work and supporting himself solely by painting. The author discusses Gissing's technique as his style began to change and how the artist's frame of mind was reflected in his work. There is a good representation of the work of this period in the book. The book concludes with a discussion of Gissing's love of steam locomotives and some details about his time spent building these scale trains. Finally a sampling of paintings of the drastically different seascapes and badlands he was doing in the few years before his death, concludes the pictorial record of Gissing's life and works.

Max Foran is the author of a dozen books, including The Chalk and the Easel: Stanford Perrott, Teacher?Painter; Trails and Trials: Markets and Land Use in the Canadian Cattle Industry; Roland Gissing: the People's Painter; and Calgary: Canada's Frontier Metropolis. He is a professor in the University of Calgary's faculty of Communications and Culture.

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