Education
In Toronto, he attended Danforth Technical School, where his natural artistic talent was encouraged.
In Toronto, he attended Danforth Technical School, where his natural artistic talent was encouraged.
Perhaps best known for painting dramatic landscapes in acrylic and oil, Squires also produced major work in sculpture, lithography and stained glass. Much of his work drew inspiration from the landscape and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in Change Islands, Newfoundland, Gerald Squires moved with his family to Toronto, Ontario at the age of twelve.
He later took night classes at the Ontario College of Art & Design.
Upon graduating from Danforth, Squires supported his art practice by apprenticing as a stained glass artist, and later worked as an editorial artist with the Toronto Telegram for several years. He exhibited his work in Toronto in solo shows such as Saint Francis of Assisi and Related Subjects, The Canticles of Saint John of the Cross, and The Wanderer Series.
In 1969 Squires quit his job at the Telegram and returned to Newfoundland. Work from this period includes Studies in Steel, Portraits, and The Ferryland Downs Series.
Squires lived and worked in Holyrood, Newfoundland since 1983.
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. 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).
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]
Squires was also a founding member of the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
