Garry was born into a large third-generation family on Salt Spring Island. Vast amounts of time spent on the then less-populated island, many years of farming and years spent simply living there have shaped the development of a different sensibility regarding landscape and beauty. His works twist the often overlooked mess of impenetrable underbrush to focus on the intricate detail and subtle beauty the island has revealed to him. Since graduating from the Vancouver School of Art, where he studied drawing, painting and sculpture he has visited and revisited the island landscape as a source of his art and has come to favour painting as his primary means of expression.