George Campbell Tinning achieved recognition for the watercolours he painted during WW II as an official Canadian war artist. He lived in Montreal and was known for his landscapes in watercolour and oils; he also completed mural commissions. As an artist, he was known simply as Campbell Tinning.
Born in Saskatoon, Tinning grew up on the prairies in Winnipeg and Regina. In the latter city he took art classes and participated in a group exhibition in 1937. In 1938, he attended the Eliot O'Hara Watercolor School at Goose Rocks, Maine and then went to New York to study at the Art Students League under Arnold Blanche and William Palmer.
When he returned to Canada in 1939, he settled in Montreal and was employed as a graphic artist by Robert Simpson Ltd., from 1940-42. The Art Association of Montreal awarded him the Jessie Dow Prize for his watercolour paintings in 1942 and in 1948.
In June 1942, Tinning enlisted with the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment and was appointed an official war artist in April 1943. He painted in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before going overseas. His first posting was at a Canadian Army parachute training school in England, and his watercolour, Drifting Down, 1944, depicting the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion practicing in the Wylye Valley England, captured the gentle movement of the falling parachutes. This work has become one of his better-known paintings. In 1944 Tinning was posted to Italy, where he painted armoured units. He later went on to Holland and Germany, and was demobilized in 1946 with the rank of Captain.
After the war, Tinning returned to Montreal where he resumed his career as an artist and illustrator, he also taught watercolour painting at night. Tinning joined the Canadian Society of Graphic Art and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. In 1950, his watercolour landscape, Net Drying, Blow Me Down, Newfoundland, 1949, was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada. In 1953 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and in 1970 he became a full member.
