Resident Artist
"I've fused 40 years of painting faces, portraits, and humans at work play, and sports with local scenes. The intent is to capture the history and the individual stories of life in Grey County on canvas."-GARY MCLAUGHLIN
Gary McLaughlin, associate of the Ontario College of Art (Toronto, 1978), has worked full-time at his craft, honing his dynamic style of painting people for Canadian and International advertisers, products, and companies. A short list of his clients includes the CBC. Harold Ballard (former owner of the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey franchise and Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto), Bobby and Brett Hull, Molsons, RCA Victor, Tim Horton's, Coca Cola, Sony Inc., and Harlequin Publishing,
McLaughlin graduated from Toronto's Ontario College of Art in 1978. His first job post-graduation was to paint an original canvas for the 50th anniversary of Maple Leaf Gardens. Harold Ballard commissioned the work and personally directed the details of the images in the montage. The original hung in the lobby of the arena for over a decade.
His portrait skills were honed to perfection from years of painting romance novel covers for Harlequin Books and many other esteemed clients. His grit and expertise are evident in what may be his greatest work, Blue Sky White Snow, a 12-by-6-foot oil painting depicting every Toronto Maple Leafs player in the team's one-hundred-year history. In total, 963 portraits grace this remarkable canvas.
Throughout his forty-year career as a freelance illustrator, McLaughlin has painted for international clients, advertising agencies, and numerous sports superstars including Wayne Gretzky, Mats Sundin, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, and the legendary Gordie Howe. His incredible talent and authentic technique of rendering the human face makes him an artist's artist.