1914, Brisbane – 1977, Brisbane

Travis Ian McKie began his art training under FJ Martyn Roberts at Brisbane’s Central Technical College in 1931. In 1935, he departed for England, where he continued his studies at the Kennington Art School and the Chelsea Polytechnic, London. While in England, he worked with the Australian artist Will Longstaff for around 18 months, assisting with the execution of murals and dioramas for the Australian pavilion for the Empire Exhibition Scotland, which opened in 1938. He returned to Queensland in 1938, enlisting in the Australian Army and serving in the Middle East (1939–43). After this time, he worked as a journalist for Brisbane’s Courier-Mail and Sydney’s Telegraph newspapers, before joining the public service in Papua and New Guinea in 1948. An exhibition of McKie’s watercolours from Papua and New Guinea was held at the Moreton Galleries, Brisbane, in 1952.