Gernot Dick

Gernot Dick, has been a professional painter, sculptor, and photographer.  Gernot has been exploring alpine wilderness extensively for over 30 years.  He recently retired from the School of Design, Sheridan College, where he taught art and design for 25 years.  Gernot’s work has been shown in numerous public and private galleries, and he has lectured and given workshops in colleges and universities.

But these credentials do not account fully for Gernot’s inspirational impact on students and colleagues.  More than an artist and teacher, Gernot is an adventurer.  His experiences include high altitude mountain climbing, marathon running, white-water canoeing and competitive skiing. He uses these activities as metaphors to explore interior landscapes with the same passion and integrity that characterize his physical pursuits.

Gernot’s career has included many unusual jobs:  industrial and portrait photographer, Great Lakes seaman, and tree faller in the Peace River dam flood area in B.C.  He also designed and built the Atlin Art Centre.  His unique experiences and outlook provide much of the content of his teaching philosophy where he combines unique storytelling with humour, respect for human capacities, compassion for human fallibilities, and a talent for finding and sharing philosophical and aesthetic insights in everyday experiences.

In the early 1970s, Gernot found his way to Atlin.  The power and beauty of the land reminded him of his home in Austria and inspired him to build a summer art school. 

Artist Statement:
For me, making art is a “moving” visual and physical experience, outward and inward- an alleluia in regards to life and living.  I live as an artist, teacher and adventurer in “wild” places.  My drawings and paintings and teaching, all reflect my love of nature and are focused on helping people to feel their own ties to places that speak to them.  I strongly hope that, despite the trend to be “plugged in and tuned out”, people may increasingly cherish the importance of connecting with their natural surroundings.

As an artist I am telling about my version of truth, reflecting on cultural and social issues, as it is urgent that we learn to live truthful within the “laws” of the Universal Force.  The land, the mountain and the rivers tell us that we must live with this force and not against it.

I never fail to feel awe, comfort and joy no matter where my senses connect with nature.  I have a special love for the water and the rock forms of the mystic, northern land.  My way of creating is simple: I look and listen in nature and social places and take it in, and only after awhile, I begin to work.  It is a joy to record my version, but the real gift is being present and connecting through nature to the Universal Force, the Force that brings all life and holds the Truth that we should live in harmony.

Gernot Dick's Work in the Gallery

Some of the work Gernot Dick has in the Gallery is featured below. Please contact us if you have questions about any of the pieces or other works we may have.