Deb Garlick graduated in 1995 with a major in both Art History and Visual Arts. Her paintings are in private collections across Canada and the United States.

After completing university, Garlick moved to the UK for six years before returning to the West Coast of Canada to pursue her art career. She began as an abstract painter and moved into figurative, her paintings becoming influenced by artists such as Jean Paul Lemieux and Milton Avery. Her interest is creating a stillness around moments of flux, realization and reflection.

Garlick paints from her studio in Victoria, BC.

Statement

Space and stillness. I am interested in taking complex situations, experience, thoughts and memories, and bringing a peace to it. I think of it like a therapy in perspective - juxtapose the complex with the calm. I have been described as intense, whimsical, solitary, funny as hell and maybe a little quirky too. When I paint, it can come from any one of these places. If there's a painting, it means there is something I needed I say or a need to express how I feel which I would find hard to put into words.

My art comes from my experience but it expresses a universal desire to create something in memory of a moment that feels dreadfully important... or obscure, memorable, funny, interesting. It allows me to share and be private about it. It represents an intimate perspective on, and a handling of, a moment, a life.

I find peace in open spaces, subdued colour, distilling more into less. It brings me to a calm, still, quiet, open, airy place and that's what I paint about - complexity in distilled spaces.

Photography

Coming from an intrepid family of travellers, Deb has spent a great deal of time adventuring worldwide from caving in Belize, diving in Thailand, sailing the Mediterranean to hiking the Cinque Terra in Italy. Along the way, she discovered a passion for photography and just likes to go exploring and find the perfect atmospheric representation of her experience.

Her photography has been published for retail and is in print worldwide.

Bali