Artist Bio
Gary McLaughlin has spent over thirty years working at his craft – that of commercial illustrator.
McLaughlin graduated from Toronto’s Ontario College of Art in 1978. His first assignment 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.
Throughout his thirty-year freelance illustration career, Gary McLaughlin’s artwork has graced the covers of magazines, corporate annual reports, in-store displays, cereal boxes, CDs, collector plates and china, romance novels, newspaper ads, magazine ads and limited edition prints. He has painted many superstars including sports greats such as Wayne Gretzky, Mat Sundin, Brett Hull, the Fab Four (Gretzky, Orr, Hull, Howe) and much more.
Once dubbed, “Rockwell of the North”, Gary McLaughlin’s talent for painting people is the key to his celebrated style.
Since moving from Toronto to Grey County in 1988, Gary has painted his way into the local scene with his larger than life murals. His vibrant paintings are true to life and often with a twist of humor or a nod to history.
McLaughlin has come full circle and he has been working on the Maple Leafs 100th-anniversary oil painting. This impressive canvas measures 6×12 feet and will be finished in February of 2017. The huge artwork will feature all of the players that have ever played for the Toronto Arenas, Toronto St. Pat’s and the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1917 to 2017.
© 2018 – Our artists retain the copyright ownership of all of their images. All listed prices are for ownership of original art or print. The artist retains all reproduction rights.