Luminous

About

Graduated from Central School of Art and Design in London 1984. Exhibited widely in London, and throughout the UK, with work in many private collections.
Fascinated by the human form and the use of light and shade upon it, using this to enhance the image by giving it excitement and mood. Conveying some mystery and even spirituality, as well as the strength and beauty of the body. 
Influences include, Caravaggio, Klimt, J W Waterhouse, Alma Tadema as well as Francis Bacon and Rothko for intense mood and atmosphere.
“When starting a painting I have an image in my mind of how I want it to be but after sketching the initial pose on the canvas the image develops and takes on its own path. I take my reference from many sources including models, imagination and life all around me.”
Painting from dark to light, laying on dark brown or blue washes as a ground, and building layer upon layer whilst still wet. The canvas is worked for a few hours before being left to dry. 
Bill works on 2 or 3 canvases in this way returning to them, one after another with fresh eyes. The aim is to achieve ‘tight’ realism in parts of a painting whilst in other areas leaving it loose and less defined, thus escapeing the confines that realism can impose and to be more expressive. 

In the underwater series, Bill has created ethereal entities freed from gravity, almost only hinted at.  These nymphs are at once seemingly wholly graspable and yet their fluidity and symbiotic nature of form within aquatic realm suggest they may well dissipate in a moment and be lost forever.