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Welcome to my website!

Hi -  I'm William and I live and paint in the Highlands, working mainly in oils.

I love working outdoors in watercolours and oils painting 'plein air' in all weathers. 

Recently the 2020 'self-isolation' caused by Covid 19 has resulted in a lot more studio-work, including portraits.

The studio is close to our home in Fortrose, near Inverness, Scotland and is base-camp for working in oils, pastel, charcoal, pen-and-watercolour.

This website  reflects a diversity, from Landscapes and Portraits, to ‘Portrait Sketches’, Africa images, Church images and Abstracts. The images also cover a variety of different years!

I have always loved painting even though I have had careers in journalism and then in the Anglican Church - as a Vicar! Yes really! So there’s not been much time for anything else. Retirement in 2010 has given more time for the painting.

I am basically self-taught but come from a family of artists and we all encourage each other.   At the last count I have done 106 portraits and 1,176 ‘Portrait-Sketches’. So together with landscapes I have sold approximately 371 paintings and given away about 108. Of these 68 have been portraits - admittedly a lot of them to family!

As a member of the Art Society of Inverness and the Redcastle Art Group I value very much the teaching and encouragement from other artists. I try and  pick up ideas and tips from all sorts of art courses. One of the earliest of  was six-months' life-drawing at the Academie Julian in Paris where I was also supposed to be learning French. I can't say I excelled at either!  But I loved Paris and the wonderful galleries were a fabulous inspiration.

I have had work  shown in about 30 exhibitions and also had eight solo shows – of varying success! Along the way there have been requests for a number of book-covers, illustrations, articles, lectures, seminars and workshops.

My wife, Libby and I have three wonderful grown-up children all doing interesting things in different areas of interest.

Just click on one of the 'galleries' above and enjoy a good browse!

William,  March 2021

Mobile car studio
Mobile car studio
When the wind blows too hard then a brolly is impossible as here in Feb 2020. This was on Shore Road near Beauly and even sheltering behind the car the easel blew over twice! Two further visits were needed in calmer weather to try and get the picture into shape. See final result in 'Landscapes' page.
Portrait-Sketching of Masai in Kenya
Portrait-Sketching of Masai in Kenya
A wonderful visit to a Masai village, Kenya with a chance to do charcoal portrait-sketches. V hot, v tiring but v worth it! See 'Portrait Sketches' page. Thanks to Crystal Wells - now Mather - for the photo.
Portrait of Crystal using FaceTime
Portrait of Crystal using FaceTime
A 'virtual' sitting of Crystal 5,000 miles away in Kenya for an 'actual' portrait in the UK - on-screen for four hours then lots of studio-work! Final portrait of Crystal is on the 'Portrait' page.
A bit chilly!
A bit chilly!
Plein-air work is a massive challenge and sometimes a bit chilly, as here above Alness, Highlands. Thanks to Jonathan Shearer for the photo! See 'Snow Images'' page for several snow-efforts.
Portrait Sketch of Mark
Portrait Sketch of Mark
Good fun in the studio doing quick Portrait-Sketches of Mark (and also his sister Vivienne - not in picture) Pastel 400X300. 2020. Photo: Hannah Mather
In The Studio
In The Studio
OK - so there's no paint on the brush or palette, so this is a bit fake! But thanks to our daughter Hannah - being handy with a camera - this gives an idea of where a lot of the work goes on - and that's not fake at all!
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