Gerda Marschall
Gerda Marschall was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1949. Her family came to Canada when she was five, settling near Montreal. Gerda earned her Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from McGill in 1984 while working full time. She then started her business buying and selling shipping containers and added a second business related to transport repairs. Marschall's art background includes exploring various art courses, most notably at the Saidye Bronfman Centre of the Arts and participating in numerous workshops. She was inspired and influenced by Canadian artists such as Seymour Segal, Marilyn Rubenstein, Sophie Jodoin and the late Philip Iverson. Their emphasis on expression, colour, and movement set the stage for her later works.
Gerda's compositions are motivated by colour, nature, and creativity. Nature, gardening, animals and travelling are passions of hers that influence her work immensely. Her boundless energy and truly optimistic view on life are evident in her paintings, where bursts of colour and broad strokes take on a life of their own. Her still lifes are anything but still.
