Jim Brager
Camrose-born acrylic and watercolour landscape painter Jim Brager earned his Diploma of Applied Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design (1970) and furthered his education with a commercial and fine art painting course at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as undertaking annual workshops at the University of Alberta staged at Lake O’Hara, Pincher Creek, and Kootenay Plains. He worked in the art department of Modern Press, an Edmonton based Print company and created cover designs for authors such as Grant MacEwan; later he was Art Director for the Saskatoon newspaper the Star Phoenix. He taught art for art clubs in Bashaw, Camrose, and Flagstaff. He later owned and operated JB Graphics Design Studio in Camrose, through which he designed logos, brochures, pamphlets, posters, and illustrations. Alberta Treasury Branches printed one of his watercolour paintings, “Battle River Valley, Grainfields,” in its 1982 calendar.
Brager prefers to complete each of his watercolours in under an hour, writing that “If I should take more time, it is obviously overworked.” Describing his artistic philosophy, he writes that “creativity combined with practiced skills [are among] the most treasured gifts anyone can possess…. But this gift comes not without responsibility…. Self-expression cannot be self-centered expression, but [should] seek to communicate, entertain, amaze, and edify as a response to gratitude for this great gift.”
Brager participated in exhibitions at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the Candler Art Gallery in Camrose, the Free Spirit Gallery in Calgary, and the Walsh Gallery in Red Deer.
Brager prefers to complete each of his watercolours in under an hour, writing that “If I should take more time, it is obviously overworked.” Describing his artistic philosophy, he writes that “creativity combined with practiced skills [are among] the most treasured gifts anyone can possess…. But this gift comes not without responsibility…. Self-expression cannot be self-centered expression, but [should] seek to communicate, entertain, amaze, and edify as a response to gratitude for this great gift.”
Brager participated in exhibitions at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the Candler Art Gallery in Camrose, the Free Spirit Gallery in Calgary, and the Walsh Gallery in Red Deer.