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ABOUT ME

Primarily a painter of our land, water and sky, I started sketching and painting in the mid-1980’s. Years later I found the process of painting had become part of me…something I had to do.  It was a relaxing world. Many strokes of paint laid down over the past 30 plus years, completed both in my studio and in plein air, have helped me garner the success I have achieved to date. 

My work included early experimental abstract expressionism, created in watercolor and acrylic media. I moved on to oil representational impressionism. Experimentation has become a habit. I have become a vibrant colorist who enjoys emloying a palette knife when creating my pieces.

The process of creating each piece brings me total satisfaction…from the initial quick sketch of the scene to the fully developed piece. The process provides happiness and enjoyment to me as well as to the observer. I always seek color and I am drawn to the simplicity of the shapes and the vibrance of objects I see. Physically, I want to feel them and I do when I can. Emotionally, I experience them through each stroke.

I paint what feels strong to me and search to find my path into each piece. As a result, you will often find simple trails or roads, moving water, lively clouds or pure stokes of color leading somewhere…just as what happens with the paths we take in our lives. Observation, experimentation, and my interest in “what is around the corner” for each of us in life serves as an inspiration and guide. 

I am a participating artist in the three-plus-decades-old Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studio Program held each year during the last weekend of September and the first weekend of October.  My painting, “Sunset Along Poppy Creek” was selected as the cover image of the “2016 Art Trails Collector’s Guide,” representing the work of that year's 173 participating juried artists.

My work resides in regional, national and international locations…in both private and permanent collections. I show my work at various venues throughout the year, including galleries that represent my work. Sutter Hospital, in Santa Rosa, California, has included my work on its 2nd Floor hallways and patient rooms as part of its Permanent Collection. Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Rosa also includes my work to its permanent collection.

Born in Whittier, California in 1946, I have lived in, and enjoyed, Sonoma County since 1973.

Bill Gittins
Bill Gittins
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