Biography

EDDY COBINESS
Buffalo Point First Nation

Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) artist Eddy Cobiness was founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (aka the Woodlands Group of Seven) an association of native artists of the woodland school. He was self taught and began drawing pictures of birds in the sand, snow or on cardboard. Born in 1933 he was raised in Warroad Minnesota. In the 1950s he served in the US Army where he discovered working with watercolour and later moved to Buffalo Point Reserve on the shores of Lake of the Woods in southeastern Manitoba. He started by illustrating realistic scenes of the community and nature before moving to more abstracted forms. Cobiness worked in oil, acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencil as well as pen and ink. In the 1960s his ink and watercolour drawings were commercially successful and he began his art career. He was influenced by his colleague Painter Benjamin Chee Chee although in later years developed his work in several styles using many media. Eddy “Doc” Cobiness died in 1996 at he age of 62. He was survived by his wife of 34 years Helen and their 9 children and numerous grandchildren.