Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Although he has spent most of the last thirty years living in Nova Scotia, Gary Saunders' paintings still reflect his upbringing in rural Newfoundland.
Saunders was born in Gander Bay in 1935. In 1953, he attended the Newfoundland Academy of Art (NAA), run by painters Reginald Shepherd and his wife, Helen Parsons Shepherd. However, because of the difficulty in making a career of painting in Newfoundland at that time, Saunders also studied forestry. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1959 and spent time teaching and working in the Newfoundland forestry industry.
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Plant Scape Autumn 1968 Oil on Masonite 50.6 x 61 cm 
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In 1960-61, Saunders studied at the Ontario College of Art (OCA). Then, in 1963, he moved back to New Brunswick to attend Mount Allison University. He graduated two years later with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. From there he and his family moved to Truro, where he worked with the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forests as a writer and illustrator. He also conducted workshops in art at Mount Allison University and worked briefly as an instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
During this time Saunders managed to continue painting, aided by frequent trips back to the Gander Bay area to look for sources of inspiration. His works are primarily landscape-based abstracts and have been exhibited across Canada, including in the Atlantic Pavilion at Expo '67. They can be found in public and private collections such as those of the Hudson's Bay Company, Esso, Mount Allison University and the federal government's Art Bank. Saunders has also won awards in three Newfoundland government Arts and Letters Competitions.
In recent years, Saunders' focus has shifted more to writing. As well as producing articles for the Atlantic Provinces Book Review, The Journal of Forest History and on CBC, he has written several books. They are Alder Music, The Wildlife of Atlantic Canada and New England, Rattles and Steadies: Memoirs of a Gander River Man and Doctor Olds of Twillingate.
