Bill Wilkinson

Born in Montreal in 1950, Bill grew up with a passion for sketching, painting and fabricating art objects. He worked for years as a commercial photographer, designer and illustrator, but all the while sought to paint full time. Following a pivotal painting trip to Italy in 2001, he finally decided to sell his business in Vancouver and now paints full time from his studio in Tsawwassen, B.C.

Over the years, Bill's painting style has evolved using various media, from watercolor, acrylic and oil, to mixed media. Currently, he feels he has found the right expression with mixed media on canvas or panel. His influences are varied, the most significant of whom are Georges Braque, Jackson Pollack and Hans Hoffman.

Bill is an Active Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and has recently won an award for his mixed media work.

My work relates to my fascination with how the universe is assembled. I see the constant building up and disintegration of things around us and yet feel that it is all tied together with patterns or structures, making order out of the chaos.

Throughout my painting process I delight in wrestling with this balance between structure and randomness. I have a great passion for painting “outside the lines” but I feel I must also establish a framework to hold everything in place. One supports the other.

Although my work is primarily seen as painting, there are many elements of sculpture in my process involving wood, metal and plaster. This ‘construction’ is an important part of the work for me and I enjoy letting the materials guide me to the focus of the painting.

Bill Wilkinson
September 2006