谷守一，1920年出生在河北丰润县一个知识分子家庭，父亲喜爱绘画，自由深受其家庭环境的艺术熏陶，热爱艺术，常执笔学画。
1936年，考入北平京华美术学院，从师吴光宇、陈缘督学习工笔任务，从蒋兆和学习油画。1939年经当时的名画家吴镜汀和吴一轲介绍，加入了徐世昌创办的中国画学研究会，1940年毕业。求学期间，常为新中华广告社画广告‘搞美术设计，也常为当时出版的一些画报作画。他画的毕业创作《司马光砸缸救小朋友》在毕业画展上很快被一位美术爱好者购去。
唐山解放前夕，他被选为唐山市美术家协会理事，参与创办《美术半月画刊》并在画刊上发表古典诗词配画，《美术半月刊》称“谷守一为国画老手，为全国著名仕女画家吴一舫的高足，著名小说《鹰爪王》的精美插图则出自于谷守一之手”。
解放后，在1949年10月召开的唐山市文代会上，谷守一被选为第一届文联委员。
1958年唐山市美术工作者协会成立被选为美协主任。
1982年被选为唐山市第七届人大常委。
这个时期，他领导组织唐山的美术工作者，深入基层，体验生活，普及和提高美术工作，举办各种美展，吧唐山市的美术工作，搞的既轰轰烈烈又扎扎实实。其作品，大小刊物多又发表。被中国美术馆等多家美术馆收藏。作品到过美国、日本、加拿大、瑞士等多个国家。
谷守一从1949年到1985年离休，一直主持唐山市的美术工作，为唐山市的美术事业做出了重大的贡献，成为了解放后35年唐山美术界的领军人物。
谷守一的书法和绘画，学习古人，均不拘古，而自成一家。著名诗人、书法家陈大远在其著作中这样评价他“在绘画的各门类中，几乎是无所不能，传统技法，西洋技法，兼有所长，他本来是以仕女人物闻名的，但是山水、花鸟也又很高的造诣”、“他画山石是利用墨色互不相浸的特点化成的。这种画法，齐白石画虾、吴作人画鹰，曾经用过，但用于山水，却还没有见到过先例”、“中国的山水画，很难表现夜景，这种画法更能表现夜景的真实，《万家灯火》就是他传统山水画的代表作，而西画的表现方法，却被他悄悄地柔和进来了”陈大远曾为这幅画题过一首诗，诗云：
“四十年前血染天，于今灯火万家暖。春宵花果香如许，新月偷窥懒下山。”

Gu Shouyi was born in 1920 in an intellectual family in Fengrun County, Hebei Province. His father loved painting and was deeply influenced by his family environment. He loved art and often wrote and studied painting.

In 1936, he was admitted to Peking University of fine arts, where he studied fine brushwork from Wu Guangyu and Chen Yuandu, and oil painting from Jiang Zhaohe. In 1939, Wu Jingting and Wu Yike, the famous painters at that time, introduced themselves to the Chinese Painting Research Association founded by Xu Shichang and graduated in 1940. During the period of study, he often did art design for the painting advertisement of new China advertising agency and also painted for some pictorial newspapers published at that time. His graduation creation "Sima Guang smashes a jar to save the children" was quickly bought by an art lover at the graduation exhibition.

On the eve of the liberation of Tangshan, he was elected as the director of Tangshan Artists Association. He participated in the establishment of the art semilunar painting journal and published classical poems and paintings in the magazine. The art semilunar magazine called "Gu Shouyi as an old hand of traditional Chinese painting, a high foot of Wu Yifang, a famous female painter in China, and the exquisite illustrations of the famous little saying" King Eagle Claw "came from Gu Shouyi.".

After liberation, Gu Shouyi was elected as a member of the first Federation of literary and art circles at the Tangshan cultural Congress held in October 1949.

In 1958, Tangshan art workers association was established and elected as the director of Art Association.

In 1982, he was elected member of the Standing Committee of the seventh Tangshan Municipal People's Congress.

During this period, he led and organized art workers in Tangshan to go to the grassroots level, experience life, popularize and improve art work, hold various art exhibitions, and do art work in Tangshan, which is both vigorous and solid. His works are published in large and small journals. It is collected by China Art Museum and other art museums. Works have been to the United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and other countries.

Gu Shouyi, who retired from work from 1949 to 1985, has been in charge of the fine arts work in Tangshan City, making a great contribution to the fine arts cause in Tangshan City, and has become a leading figure in the fine arts field in Tangshan in the past 35 years.

Gu Shouyi's calligraphy and painting, learning from the ancients, are not limited to the ancients, but self-made. Chen Dayuan, a famous poet and calligrapher, commented in his works that "in all categories of painting, he is almost omnipotent, traditional techniques, western techniques, and has both advantages. He was originally famous for ladies, but his landscape, flowers and birds are also highly accomplished." his painting of mountains and stones is based on the characteristics of non immersion of ink. Qi Baishi painted shrimps and Wu Zuoren painted eagles, which have been used before, but have never been used in landscapes. Chinese landscape paintings are hard to show the night scene. This kind of painting can better show the reality of the night scene. Wanjiadenghuo is a representative work of his traditional landscape paintings, while the expression of Western paintings is quietly and softly introduced by him. "Chen Dayuan once painted for this painting I wrote a poem. It says:

"Forty years ago, the sky was bloodstained, and now it's very warm. Spring night flowers and fruits fragrance like this, new moon peeps lazily down the mountain. "