William is a British Painter born in Derbyshire who has worked extensively throughout the UK on various commissions, residencies, educational workshops, teaching and group artistic projects from the Furness Peninsula,Cumbria to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. William has recently returned from the South Island of New Zealand. For the last four years through the project ‘Sketches From Aotearoa 2018-2022’ has taken his practice outside, painting in the tradition of Plein Air Painting also known as Open Air Painting.

William during his time in Fiordland and Mount Cook National Park combines his passion for painting outdoors, nature with multi day hiking and tramping. In 2020 and 2021 William took part in a series of Artist talks, workshops with the Department of Conservation and the National institute of Water and Atmosphere in New Zealand, producing a series of works in reflection of both experiences which will also be further consolidated within the studio.

The experience of living amongst the Southern Alps in New Zealand has inspired a deepening desire to further explore the alpine environment through the exploration and translation into oil paint. “The Alpine environment has become an increasing area of focus for my inspiration. The fragility of the Alpine and the deterioration of these fragile ecosystems from the effects of climate change deeply concerns me that these areas may irreversibly be lost. I aspire to share my positive experiences of being present in the landscape through the practice of painting, celebrating it for what it is and the importance to preserve it.

The mountains imbue a feeling of complete connection. For me the mountains give me a clarity of thought distilled through the action of location painting I endeavour to bring back to the studio.” Williams works attempt to recall experiences in the landscape on the surface of a canvas or artist panel. It is the translation, discovery and vision which allows the paintings to become. "It is important to allow a painting to speak for themselves in terms of balance of mark, gesture, colour and compositional balance, knowing when a piece is "finished" can be quite difficult to judge. I am not particularly interested in illustrating a particular scene with every blade of grass. I want the paintings to speak for themselves as their own entity." (William Wood:2017)

William follows in the long tradition of landscape oil painting and in particular has taken interest in the works of Arnold Bocklin, Casper David Friedrich, William Turner and John Constable as sources of inspiration.

EDUCATION: 2009-2012 Loughborough University BA Hons - Fine Art 2013- 2014 Sheffield Hallam PGCE with Master Credits