Gary Wick is a self-taught artist who was born in Chicago and has worked with oils, colored pencil, watercolors and soft pastels. Subjects of his recent work include barnscapes, landscapes, and skyscapes. His primary direction now is documenting what is visible today knowing it may not be here tomorrow. After retiring from his architectural career of 35 years in January of 1995, Gary picked up his camera and began photographing rural America. At the same time he reacquainted himself with soft pastels and found that he enjoyed working with the dry soft pastels more than any other media because of the immediacy and intensity of color. Gary is primarily a studio painter, preferring to work from photographs that he has taken. His ability to create a painting from his photographs is a testimony to the close relationship he has with both media. His basis for painting is “Paint what you see,” which results in realism, almost photographic art. He is often heard saying “Fine art, in my belief, does not have to match the color of a wall or the furniture in the room, it should be something that you enjoy when you look at it. Think about what you see around a painting when you are really absorbed by a paintings beauty. I hope it isn’t the furniture”. The National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, which is now permanently located in Chicago, Illinois houses three of Gary’s early portrait works. While he no longer does portraiture he is content knowing that he has a place in history because of those paintings. They do not reflect the blood and guts of war but a realistic view of common individuals caught up in their thoughts, thinking of today, or tomorrow, or of the future. Gary is represented in galleries in Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin. His art is collected throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.