Born in West Point, Ohio near the border of Pennsylvania, Paul Travis became a painter, lithographer, etcher, and teacher, living in Cleveland and Cleveland Heights, Ohio. His name is closely associated with the watercolor tradition of Northeast Ohio. He graduated from the Cleveland School of Art where he was a student of Henry Keller, tonalist painter.

He served in the Army in World War I, and remained in Europe for several years where he taught art at American universities in Europe.

In 1920, he returned to Ohio to teach at the Cleveland School, renamed in 1940 the Cleveland Institute of Art. He also taught at Western Reserve University beginning 1956.

In 1927, he traveled extensively in Africa and used that subject matter for many years in his painting.

Memberships included the American Society for Aesthetics; Cleveland Society for Aesthetics, which in 1946 he served as President; Cleveland Museum of Modern Art; and the Archaeological Institute America.

Exhibition venues were: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1920-1958; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Golden Gate Exposition, 1939; Carnegie Institute; Corcoran Gallery Biennials; Pasadena Art Institute, 1946; Butler Art Institute, 1936-1958; Ohio Watercolor Society, and Cleveland Art Association.

Source:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art