“Windy Day at Cayo Guillermo”
2016
watercolor
15 x 22 in.
http://williamrogersart.com
About the artist:
William Rogers CSPWC TWSA SCA
William (Bill) Rogers is an Elected Member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC) of which he is currently the Past President. He is also a signature member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of America (TWSA) and the Société Canadienne de l’Aquarelle (SCA). In 2009 he won the CSPWC AJ Casson Medal for the top painting in the Open Water International Exhibition at the Leighton Art Centre in Calgary AB.
He has also won a large number of awards for his watercolors in major watercolor societies in Canada and the USA since he started to compete in 1997. He has served as juror at a number of exhibitions and events including the Canadian Society of painters in Water Colour (CSPWC) and the American Watercolor Society (AWS).
In May 2014, Bill had the extreme honour to serve as the Royal Tour Artist for the 2014 Royal Tour of Canada by HRH Prince Charles and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall. It was the experience of a lifetime. A number of the works created are now in HRH Prince Charles Collection.
His university education was a degree in Mathematics and also in Education but he managed to include a number of Fine Art courses as well, even selling his work in a local gallery while studying. His art education was mainly hard work and practice but also included a number of workshops including watercolor workshops from Carlton Plummer, Bill Vrscak, and Arne Westerman.
Bill has painted from life from the very beginning and continues to do plein air landscapes and paints the figure on a regular weekly basis. He has participated in top juried Plein air events in the USA since 2009 such as Plein Air Easton, En Plein Air Texas, Carmel Art Festival, Mountain Maryland Plein Air, Easels in Frederick, Paint Annapolis, and Plein Air Vermont among others. From these Bill has garnered numerous awards. He recently participated in the inaugural Plein Air Bermuda Festival in November 2015 and was a winner of a major $2000 award.
A Cape Breton, Nova Scotia native, Bill still lives in this beautiful province with his wife Joanne in Antigonish, the home of StFX University where his wife teaches full time and Bill teaches part time in the Fine Art Department and also teaches workshops in watercolor and oil in Canada and abroad. A full time painter, Bill supplies a number of galleries in Canada and abroad with his landscapes, figures and equine artworks.
Even in holiday travel, such as his recent February holiday in Cuba, it has always been his practice to bring painting equipment and do a number of plein air works during the trip. Watercolour is usually the medium for travel due to its portability and ease of transport. The featured artwork “Windy Day at Cayo Guillermo” was done at his Cuba resort, as well as a number of works from the nearby Cuban city of Moron – the pieces totalling a dozen watercolors in all.
You can see these works as well as recent works from the fall of 2015 from Bermuda and Texas on his website. Bill lives by the motto “I am a student for life” and he continues to learn, share and hone his craft. Hopefully something uniquely ‘William Rogers’ will be the fruit of his labours.
