the artistic life

Photo ©2021 Laura Docter

George Burr: An AwardWinning Artist Rediscovers the Artistic Life

George Burr recognized early in life that he was drawn to the life of the artist. As a 15-year-old high school student in Wausau, he was driven to attend an art training camp in Kansas on his own. He enrolled, prepped, packed, and traveled to the school with his parents blessing, but he put the entire plan into motion.

Burr originally started working with pastels as a budding artist in the 8th grade, he says, and soon found himself winning painting contests, including one notable win for his “Peninsula Road” painting.

After college, an MBA in accounting, and a long stint in the corporate world, Burr fortuitously met Chicago-area artist Gary Wick, he says, who soon introduced him to new painting materials and reawakened his interest in being a full-time artist. Wick became his mentor, and Burr soon found himself doing new award-winning artwork. His chosen medium of dry pastel, and his interest in landscapes, pushed him into an “artistic breakthrough” with a painting called “Susan’s Field,” launching him towards a rapid lifestyle change in Door County.

By 2005, Burr had opened his own gallery in Ephraim, and is now marking his 17th year as a full-time Door County-based artist. Burr describes his style as “photographic,” and often fools the eye of the beholder with detail so fine it seems to be a photograph. Trees are one of his favorite challenges, and the landscapes he chooses are always of Door County and its vistas.

“I discovered very quickly that as good as they might be, landscapes of Photo ©2021 Laura Docter the Rocky Mountains are not what people who travel to Door County are interested in seeing,” Burr says today. His website, www.GeorgeBurrGallery.com, features beautiful Door County sunsets, tree lines, the iconic curvy road that leads to the Northport ferry dock and other classic views of the county.

Burr’s gallery offers only 77 limited editions of any given original – but visitors will also find a broad collection of notecards, coasters and other handmade treasures in his gallery next to Waterbury Inn on Highway 42 in Ephraim. — Jude Genereaux