Collection: Dickie, Greg

Greg Dickie was born in Halifax and grew up in Digby, Nova Scotia. He received his early education in Digby schools and continued at Dalhousie University, graduating in science.

While at Dalhousie he was invited, by chance, to a show by The National Gallery of Canada featuring Tom Thomson and members of The Group of Seven. Two paintings stood out: Thomson's "Moonlight" and Lismer's "Rain in the North Country". This was the catalyst for almost all his future landscape work and attempts to capture on canvas the many moods of the backwoods with their hidden lakes and streams. Likewise, marine paintings by Jack Gray, Bill DeGarthe, John Cook and Joe Purcell inspire his marine and seascapes.

Greg now lives in Windsor and spends summers in Tatamagouche. He has paintings throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Artist Statement

An artist friend once referred to me as "truthful" and I try to carry that into my work as a painter. I am perhaps best described as "a Canadian impressionist" rather than a "realist" painter. I like to leave a little to the imagination but never to the point of becoming abstract.

I work mostly from photographs and small pencil sketches which define composition, and then move on to canvas or birch panels. I prefer oils, but occasionally work in acrylics. I have taught in both media. Years of woods travel and canoe trips hopefully imbue my work with honesty and a feeling for my subject. Time spent of sailing and racing on the Northumberland Strait have also instilled a feeling and love for open water, the sea and the many fishing villages dotting Nova Scotia's coastline.