Artist draws on wildlife as inspiration

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"Picasso," says Ojibwa artist Eddie Cobiness when asked who was the major influence on his painting.

"The way he used lines and colors and made them beyond what others had done."

Interestingly, Cobiness can't point to any one Native artist who influenced his work, and indeed his style is uniquely his own. While it doesn't resemble Picasso's works, either, the innovation and a great attention to balance and space are there.

Cobiness, based in Winnipeg, is one of the best known and most successful Native artists in the country. In the 1970s, he says, he made more than half a million dollars with his art - a good thing with a wife and seven kids to support.

He slowed down in the mid 80s when he was afflicted with diabetes and he doesn't do any of the murals and large canvases he used to, but he still paints every day and you won't find much of his work lying around the house.

"I can't seem to hang on to my paintings. Someone is always asking for my work."

Cobiness was raised on a reserve in the southeastern corner of Manitoba and across the border in Minnesota where he was actually born. The area is one of rolling Canadian Shield hills, abundant forests and waterways and the large Lake of the Woods.

Considering his upbringing, it's not surprising nature is the central focus of his art. He does many water creatures - fish, otters, waterfowl - and larger animals common to eastern Manitoba like black bears and deer.

He also paints animals he has observed in his travels, like the whales he has seen on some of his numerous trips to Canada's West Coast, where his art sells especially well.

He paints from memory, drawing on his years of observing wildlife in its element.

"I try to put movement into everything," he says, noting that nothing in nature is ever completely still.

While they didn't paint, his parents were very artistic, making snowshoes, baskets, beadwork and moccasins. Eddie showed an inclination for drawing from a young age, erasing the lines from his sister's school notebook so he could drawn on the paper.

His passion hasn't waned.

"Art is a form, but it takes something from the heart, not the mind," he says.

Cobiness is a member of the Group of Seven Native Artists, which, as the name implies, was a group of successful artists that got together in the 70s to exhibit their work across the country.

As a senior artist in Manitoba, he is always willing to offer help and advice to those starting out.

"I don't feel in my mind that I'm better than other artists," he says.

"I try to help because there's so much talent our there."