Roland Gissing was an English artist, best known for his prolific paintings of Western Canadian landscapes. Born in Worcester, England on May 14, 1895, Gissing studied at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, Scotland. After graduating, he became enamored with the cowboys he had seen in cinema, and eventually moved to Canada to live as a cowboy himself. He often painted en plein air, taking trips into the mountains and emerging weeks later with groups of small, radiant paintings. Mostly self-taught, he was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists. Gissing died on September 29, 1967, in Calgary, Canada.