GERALD SQUIRES, R.C.A.

Gerald was born in Change Islands, Newfoundland, on November 17, 1937. Both parents were Salvation Officers. During the war his father served overseas in The Forestry, and his mother, who had been a missionary in India and China for several years before marrying, held the main responsibility of raising three sons while ministering in various communities in Newfoundland. When Gerald was twelve, his mother was stationed out of Newfoundland to Toronto. As he was always drawing and painting, his artistic abilities were recognized by friends and teachers who encouraged him to take the commercial art course offered at Danforth Technical High School, "where he would learn skills that would allow him to make a living as a commercial artist working in the advertising field". But as luck would have it, two of his art instructors, Dan Logan and Fred Sevard, were fine artists, and it was through them that he discovered, and was encouraged to pursue his true calling of personal self-expression through art. He went on weekend painting trips to Algonquin Park; painted and sketched daily in the pubs and backstreets of Toronto; regularly attended life drawing sessions at the Artists' Workshop, and night classes taught by Fred Hagan, John Alfsen and Jack Nichols at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Upon graduation from Danforth Tech he rented a studio, supporting himself and his art by working as a stained glass artist with McCausland's Stained Glass Studios in Toronto and Russell C. Goodman Stained Glass in West Hill. He apprenticed for 6 months with sculptor/printmaker Carl Pappe in Tasco, Mexico, and then worked for several years as an editorial artist with The Toronto Telegram Newspaper. His artworks were included in many group exhibitions in galleries across Canada, one of which won him The Saidye & Samuel Bronfman Best Young Artist Award, and is in the collection of The Montreal Museum of Fine Art. Among his many early Toronto solo exhibitions were: "St. Francis of Assisi and Related Subjects" (Helene Arthur Gallery), "The Canticles of St. John of the Cross" (Mazelow Gallery), and "The Wanderer Series" (Picture Loan Gallery). He was among a small group of artists who initiated Toronto's first Outdoor Art Exhibition and was a founding member of the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario.

In 1969 Squires, now married, quit his job at The Telegram and returned to Newfoundland with his wife Gail, and daughters Meranda and Esther, settling in 1971 at the lighthouse residence in Ferryland. Here, hired for two years as "Artist in Residence" by Memorial University Extension, he taught art, and together with fellow-artist Stewart Montgomerie, set up a steel sculpture studio (Headland Studios), where they and other artist-friends created everything from steel anchors for fishermen, to exhibition, and public and private sculpture commissions. During these 12 years, paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures produced by Squires and exhibited in galleries in Newfoundland and across Canada were: "The Boatman", "Studies in Steel", "Portraits", "The Ferryland Downs Series", and the "Cassandra Series".

Moving to Holyrood, Newfoundland in 1983, Squires worked for three years on commissions from Mary Queen of the World Parish, creating two large triptychs, "Crucifixion and Resurrection", "The Last Supper", and "The Fourteen Stations of the Cross". An Arnold Bennett film, "The Newfoundland Passion" shown often on Vision TV, traces the creation of these works. Solo Exhibitions from 1983 to 2005 include: "New Works by Gerry Squires" at the Emma Butler Gallery, St. John's, 1989; "Gerald Squires: The Newfoundland Landscape 1988-1993" at the Art Gallery, Memorial University of Newfoundland; "Gerald Squires: New Landscapes" (a Year of the Arts' Exhibition) at the RCA Gallery, St. John's, NL, 1997; Gerald Squires: Journey" (a retrospective showing selections from 4 decades of work) at the "Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1998; "Gerald Squires: Continuing Journey" at the David Ariss Fine Art Gallery, St. John's, NL, 1998; "Interior Light" at the Emma Butler Gallery, November 2005.

Artist, art activist and teacher, much of Squires' large body of work finds its inspiration in the landscape and culture of Newfoundland. In 1984 Squires received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts; 1992, an Honourary Doctorate from Memorial University; 1999, was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art; September 1999, was appointed Member of the Order of Canada; and in 2003 received the Golden Jubilee Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. He has acted as a juror for Canada Council Arts Grants "B" and for the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council. Many of his major exhibitions have traveled across Canada and his works have been included in more than 300 group exhibitions in Newfoundland, Canada, U.S.A., Great Britain, France and India, including: "Political Landscapes #1" at the Royal Canadian Academy Gallery, Toronto and the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, ON, 1989; "9 Peintres Terre Neuviens" at the Salle de la Renaissance, Bordeaux, France, 1992; "Hidden Values: Atlantic Corporations Collect", Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1997.

Commissions and other works since 2001 include: a life-size bronze statue of Shanawdithit, (the last of Newfoundlands' Beothuk Indians), titled "Spirit of the Beothuk", for The Beothuk Institute of Newfoundland and Labrador erected at the Boyd's Cove Newfoundland Beothuk Interpretation Centre; "Caribou on the Barrens", a 5x10 foot oil painting for the St. John's Airport commissioned by the St. John's Airport Authority; the designing and painting of the "Brother Jim McSheffery Memorial Window" for the MacMorran Community Centre, St. John's, and "Fourteen Stained Glass Windows" for Mary Queen of the World Parish Church, Mount Pearl (both produced through Brendan Blackmore's Sunhound Glassworks Ltd); a limited edition of 50 lithographs of "Avondale's Disappearing Church"; 8 ceramic raku-fired wall-relief sculptures of theCanadian Catholic missionary martyrs, "Breubeuf and His Brethren", for St. Bonaventure School Chapel, St. John's; an edition of 100 lithographs of "St. George's Anglican Church, Brigus", for the Brigus Heritage Committee; an 8 X 18 foot raku-fired bas-relief ceramic wall mural "For Mercy Has a Human Heart", depicting the history of St. Clares' hospital, commissioned by The Sisters of Mercy, designed by Squires and sculpted and fired with the assistance of his daughter Esther Squires.

In June 2004 Gerald's life in art were a featured event of the 2nd Annual St. Jerome's Festival of Art and Spirit in Waterloo, Ontario, and several of his major works were exhibited at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery.

Squires is presently working on a new series of paintings; completing a ceramic wall mural of Bishop Lampert, commissioned by The St. John's Basilica; and about to begin work on a life-size bronze sculpture of a Peacekeeper commissioned by the Newfoundland Chapter of the Canadian Peacekeepers' Veteran Association.

In Newfoundland Gerald's works can be seen at: The Emma Butler Gallery, 111 George St., St. Johns', Telephone (709)739-7111; The Gerald Squires' Gallery of Fine Art, 52 Prescott St., St. John's, (open by chance or appointment) Telephone (709)) 739-4429 or (709) 229-7578; The Red Ochre Gallery, 91 Duckworth St., St. John's. The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador has a large collection of his work, many of which can be seen at The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (The Rooms), and in public buildings and offices owned by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Artworks at Mary Queen of the World Church can be viewed a half hour before and after services. "Caribou on the Barrens" can be found in the carousel area of the St. John's Airport. The sculpture, "Spirit of the Beothuk" is on the path leading to the Beothuk site at the Boyd's Cove Interpretation Centre; "For Mercy Has a Human Heart" is in the main entrance hallway of St. Clare's Hospital. He also has works at the Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, N.B.. and The Carmel Gallery, Ottawa, ON.

You can find many of his works online at

Much more information and reproductions of his works can be found on the internet by typing in Gerry Squires on the Google search engine.