Reginald Shepherd

Artist Bio: Reginald Shepherd (1924 -2002)

Reginald Shepherd was born in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland, in 1924, and spent his formative years in the picturesque communities of Port de Grave and Bishops Cove in Conception Bay. Both of his parents were teachers. As a young boy, he accompanied the local artist A.E. Harris, on sketching trips around the Conception Bay area.

Upon graduation from high school in 1941, Shepherd worked as a sign painter at the American Naval Base at Argentia. In 1942, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and served as a paramedic. He was posted at Gander, Newfoundland in 1943, where he took evening art lessons from a British serviceman who was also a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.

During the 1950s, Shepherd also lectured in art at Memorial University of Newfoundland and began an art therapy program at the Waterford Hospital. He was awarded a Royal Society of Canada Fellowship in 1956, which allowed him to study for a year in Europe, primarily in Holland. After the NAA’s closure in 1961, Shepherd taught art for 18 years at Prince of Wales Collegiate, a St. John’s high school. He also worked on his studio art, chiefly serigraphs, and watercolours of the Conception Bay area. He received much critical acclaim. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1976 and received an honorary degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1988.

In addition to The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection, Shepherd’s work is part of private and public collections, including those of the Assembly of First Nations at Ottawa, Dalhousie Art Gallery at Halifax, and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.