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Bill Woodward has been an artist since birth, drawing and painting his way through school, majoring
in Art in 1974. He then went on to a career as an Engineering Officer in Britain's Merchant Navy, visiting as many galleries
and museums around the world as he could during his seven years of seafaring. During this period Bill concentrated on his
guitar and, of course, his art; creating numerous parchments and drawings.
In 1980 he designed a fraternal medal that
required the blessing of the royal family; duly given, the MountBatten Jewel was struck.
Bill came to Calgary for
a holiday in 1981, at which time he found he loved the mountains and prairies more than the oceans. So he and his wife, Heather,
moved here in 1982. Bill worked in local industry and kept art as an all-consuming hobby; calligraphy, painting, scrimshaw,
engraving, carving, making knives, arrows, jewellry, etc, all contributed to his creative skills.
In 1997 Bill took
up art as a full-time career, devoting his time to studying pastels and all of their nuances; the immediacy of the pigments,
the brilliance of the colours. Finally settling on Unison pastels because of their use of pure pigment and their consistency
in quality; their texture particularly appealing to his style of painting as he applies the pastels in direct strokes, usually
on Sennelier La Carte sanded board, filling the ground with as much pigment as possible.
In 2007 Bill moved to Guelph,
Ontario, where he currently resides.
Bill has shown work at the U of C Roza Centre, at local restaurants, at Chapters, and in local galleries.
He has his art in private collections in Canada and England and donates regularly to local charities as he believes volunteering
is a duty.
Art has led him on his best journeys, painting plein-air in Alberta, British Columbia, England
and Mexico. Today Bill paints everywhere and everything. If it inspires him, he paints it.
"I don't paint to sell;
I paint to keep" he says.
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