Gerry Willis was born in Henty, NSW, Australia in 1940. He grew up on his parents property in rural New South Wales. He moved to Sydney in 1962 and worked as a Welder, Mechanic and Musician during this time. In 1962 he moved back to his country roots and became a roadhouse proprietor, took up shearing again and dabbled in oil painting.

He taught himself to paint and became a full-time artist with the launch of the Bunkhouse Gallery in March 1983. There he held many one man exhibitions and over a fourteen year period he sold over 1600 paintings, including his very successful 'Dan Morgan' and 'Droving' series. He is frequently commisioned to paint portraits, hotels, homesteads, farm scenes, horse and bullock teams and many other mostly Australiana landscape depictions.

Probably his greatest masterpiece was Panorama Farm, a circular mural 3 metres high and 24 metres in circumference, depicting an early Australian farm scene. It combined real portions of sheds, fences etc with the mural painting to create an amazing illusion of realism. Today he continues to undertake commissions and orders and frequents the occasional exhibition and artshow.

 

To read media clippings of Gerry's career history click here