Gerald Squires
 Gerald Squires is one of the province’s most prominent visual artists: a painter, sculptor, printmaker, art activist and teacher. Much of Squires’ large body of work finds its inspiration in the landscape and culture of Newfoundland.
Squires, who now lives in Holyrood, was born in Change Islands in 1937. When he was 12, the family moved to Toronto where Squires attended Danforth Tech High School and studied commercial art. That's where Fred Savard and Dan Logan encouraged their young student to develop his fine art skills with life drawing classes and outdoor painting trips to Algonquin park. Squires went on to take night classes at The Ontario College of Art and worked as a stained glass artist in Toronto and an editorial artist with the Toronto Telegram. He was one of the founders of Toronto's first Outdoor Art Exhibit and Oshawa's Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery.
In 1969 Gerry, his wife Gail and children: Esther and Miranda moved back to Newfoundland. In 1971 he was hired as artist in residence by Memorial University Extension and took up residence at The Ferryland Lighthouse where he taught art, and together with Stewart Montgomerie established a foundry called Headland Studios. He and local artists created everything from steel anchors for fishermen to sculptures. The work Squires produced in Ferryland is now in public and private collections all over Canada - including the National Gallery of Canada and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Gerry Squires has been awarded numerous awards including the Sadie and Samuel Bronfman Best Young Artist Award; the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s ‘Ted Drover Award for Excellence in Visual Arts’; an honorary doctor of letters from Memorial University; a Golden Jubilee Award from Queen Elizabeth; the Order of Canada ... and in 1999 he was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
He has had artwork in over 300 exhibitions and his images are prominently on display in public spaces. His solo exhibitions have travelled to public art galleries across Canada and his work has been included in numerous juried exhibitions in Canada, Great Britain, the United States, France and India.
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