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Sam Black was an accomplished British Columbian artist, he worked in watercolour, acrylic, oil, and created numerous woodcuts, linocuts and lithographs. Black is perhaps best known for his watercolour paintings of birds and seascapes along the British Columbia coast.
Black was born in Ardrossan, Scotland on 5 June 1913. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Arts in 1936 and a Teachers Certificate and Art Teachers Diploma in 1937. He taught art in Scotland, but also found time to continue his study of art in London, Paris and Brussels prior to the outbreak of World War II.
When the War began in 1939, Black enlisted and became a camouflage officer in the Officer Corps. He also worked for the War Artists Advisory Committee and has paintings in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum in London.
In 1957, Black taught summer school art classes as a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia and joined the Fine Arts faculty at UBC the following year. Black enjoyed a distinguished and successful career at UBC until his retirement in 1978. He was a founding member and vice president of the International Society for Education Through Art and served as president of the Canadian branch.
In retirement, Black and his wife Elizabeth settled on Bowen Island. There he continued paint and create prints. In 1990, UBC honoured Black with a degree; Doctor of Letters.
Black died 23 April, 1998 in Vancouver, BC.
