Gary Packingham

Gary’s path to becoming a painter has been a journey with many unexpected twists of fate.   Following high school, he attended the Columbus College of Art & Design.  This lasted only one year, as the urgency of the 1960's anti-war protests led to a life-course change and a switch to political science. College was soon interrupted by four years in the Navy where Gary served as a corpsman assigned to the U.S. Marines. 

Following his service in the Navy, Gary finished studies at Ohio State University and went into politics. By 1976 he was part of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign, ending up working in the Carter White House. 

By 1980 his brief political career was over, and a new career as a political cartoonist was under way. By 1984 Gary was a frequent contributor to the Washington Post. In 1987 he moved to Michigan where he would go on to self-syndicate for nearly every paper in the state. Most of his cartoons are now in the collection of the Michigan State Library Archives as part of the state’s history. 

Following retirement from political cartooning, Gary returned to his childhood passion for painting, initially in watercolor. Recently Gary has turned to one of the oldest media for painting, egg tempera. His brother Robert, an established egg tempera painter himself, inspired Gary’s transition from watercolor to egg tempera. 

Gary lives with his wife and Labradoodle in Norton Shores, Michigan where he draws inspiration for his subject matter from people and nature along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

To request more information about this artist, click here.