Shaped by the Sea

Permanent Collections

Colin Macnee Stewart Montgomerie Artworks: Page #1 George Noseworthy Heidi Oberheide Shawn O'Hagan Paul Parsons Helen Parsons Shepherd Rae Perlin Christopher Pratt Mary Pratt Barbara Pratt Wangersky Sharon Puddester William B. Ritchie Jean Claude Roy Gary Saunders Reginald Shepherd Lise Sorensen Gerald Squires Janice Udell Peter Walker Arch Williams Don Wright Previous artists...

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Making Techniques

Agnl Artwork Index

Drawing is an important part of my work for both sculpture and painting. In painting more so as it allows me to explore and get to know my subject in depth before loosening up to express my feelings and how I relate to the subject. In sculpture I seldom work from drawings, preferring to work directly, but I use drawings to explore possible variations; basically it's sort of a decision-making process.
- Stewart Montgomerie, 1983

Excerpt from artist statement in Drawings From the Permanent Collection exhibition publication, organized by the of Memorial University Art Gallery, 1983.

Stewart Montgomerie was born in Scotland, in 1941. His family moved to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, when Montgomerie was 11 years old. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1959 and studied there for a year before moving to Toronto to study welding with well-known Canadian sculptor Gerald Gladstone.

Montgomerie returned to Corner Brook in 1961 and was given the position of artist-in-residence for Bowaters Newfoundland, a pulp and paper company. While continuing his artwork, he produced illustrations for safety and promotional posters.

Montgomerie moved to Ferryland, on the Avalon Peninsula, to paint and sculpt. On many projects, he collaborated with his neighbour Gerald Squires, a prominent Newfoundland artist. For the 1976 Olympics, Montgomerie created Maritime Form, an eight-foot high stainless steel and alloy sculpture that is now on display at Lawrence College in St. John's.

Maritime Form Series 1975 Ink Drawing 48.2 x 63.2 cm (38KB)

Montgomerie has continued his preference for working in three dimensions although he also enjoys painting the landscapes of Newfoundland. In the early 1980s, he created a series of abstract paintings based on whalebones. The prominent theme of aging and death in these images recurred in later work.

Montgomerie's paintings and sculptures have toured nationally. He is represented in private and public collections including those of the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the New Brunswick Museum, the Irish Embassy in Ottawa, and Bowaters Newfoundland Limited.

Updated June, 2004