Gerald Squires

Gerald Leopold "Gerry" Squires, CM RCA (November 17, 1937 – October 3, 2015) was an artist from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Perhaps best known for painting dramatic landscapes in acrylic and oil, Squires also produced major work in sculpture, lithography and stained glass. He was also an accomplished portraitist. Much of his work drew inspiration from the landscape and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Training and career

Born in

In 1969 Squires quit his job at the Telegram and returned to Newfoundland. In 1971 he settled in an abandoned lighthouse in

Squires lived and worked in Holyrood, Newfoundland from 1983 onward. In the early 1980s he created several major works for Mary Queen of the World Church, a process chronicled in the film The Newfoundland Passion by Arnold Bennett. In 1984 he received the Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1999, and in 2003 received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.^[3]

Squires continued to produce paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures, and exhibits widely. Notable recent shows include Gerald Squires: Journey, a 40-year retrospective at the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (1998), and Interior Light at the Emma Butler Gallery (2005).

"I Heard the Birch Tree Whisper in the Night," a one-hour documentary film capturing Squires' life and completion of his final painting, was aired on CBC television in 2017. The film is directed by Newfoundland author and filmmaker, Kenneth J. Harvey.^[4][5]

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