Wayne Williams' Exuberant Watercolours
by Sally Hansen
When Wayne Williams retired as principal of Almonte High School five years ago, he had no intention of turning the family living room into an art gallery. Instead he first wrote a novel that had been nagging at him for many years. As a former drama instructor and amateur actor, he assumed he would get involved in amateur theatre. But first he decided to try his hand at painting and signed up for a beginner’s watercolour course at Wallacks. The paintings currently on display at Perth Gallery and throughout his home in Perth are delightful evidence that he found his creative métier.
“Painting is the reason I can’t wait to get up in the morning,” he tells me. If the exuberant watercolours on the walls weren’t proof enough of his statement, the broad smile on his face certainly was. And yes, his watercolours are exuberant. They positively glow with life. That glow is probably a reflection of the excitement and satisfaction Williams feels as he explores the range of creative possibilities the world of watercolour has opened to him.
One of the inducements to paint was his love of travel. “I wanted to capture the feeling of the wonderful places we saw.” He always took photographs when sightseeing with his wife, Nancy, but finds that he now uses his camera quite differently when contemplating a possible art work. He also takes notes to record colour impressions, and the feelings or mood that the scene evokes.
Principally self-taught, Williams enjoys the challenge of manipulating his medium in unconventional ways to communicate the atmosphere of a particular scene. “The paintings I love, and am most reluctant to sell, are the ones that inspire me to discover a new way to express the mood created by some happy coincidence of place, light, weather and events. He has found that viewers respond to the textures, colours and presence of people in his works.
To capture the dusty, humid ambience of a Florentine plaza, for example, Williams splattered flecks of paint across his dried underpainting of the magnificent architecture and onlookers. He frequently paints on linen canvas in lieu of watercolour paper, applying gesso (a plaster-like material) in lines or streaks to convey rain or sunlight breaking through an overcast sky. He achieved a fascinating texture for a gorgeously hued floral abstract by applying tissue to a wet gesso base. His adventures with mixed media are growing more frequent with each success.
At Williams’ first show three years ago, fellow Perth residents Dr. and Mrs. Tyrell launched his artistic career by purchasing four of his paintings. There are now seven Wayne Williams works hanging at the Perth Medical Centre. Wayne treasures a call he received recently from a patient thanking him for the sense of calm and tranquility his works conveyed. Since April 18th his works have been on exhibit at Gallery Perth’s art show “The Appreciation of Art: Measuring the Passion and Value of Art.” They included paintings from Italy, Czech Republic, Quebec City, Tanzania & the Caribbean. During April he also participated in the Ottawa Mixed Media Artists’ Show, “Luscious”, at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa.
Wayne isn’t the only one nonplused by his rapid emergence as an artist of note. Former educational colleagues do a double-take when they encounter him among the artists exhibiting at the Perth annual Art on-the-lawn sale. “I didn’t know you were an artist,” they exclaim. “I wasn’t,” he responds. He is now, and an unusually original and creative one.
Williams’ father was born and raised in Almonte, and Wayne attended high school in Carleton Place where “there was no art, no drama, and no music. I survived by writing.” That proficiency earned him a scholarship to study journalism at Carleton University. He switched to English, met his future wife and then pursued his honours Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto. He also received a Masters in Educational Counselling at the University of Ottawa. Wayne moved to Perth to take his first position teaching English and two years later married Nancy. After demonstrating administrative capabilities as head of the Smith Falls English Department, Wayne was asked to become a vice-principal and then a principal.
The couple has raised their three children in Perth where they have lived in the same house for more than thirty years. After her retirement from teaching, Nancy has become a yoga instructor for Yoga Connections. In addition to practicing yoga himself, Wayne created a calendar in conjunction with Yoga Connections to raise money for the Perth Food Bank.
As an artist, he misses the people he used to work with, but he relishes the freedom of “being able to paint what he wants, how he wants, when he wants.” He tells me how much he has benefited from being a member of the Rideau Lakes Artists’ Association centred in Westport. He also gratefully cites the contribution to his rapid progress made by artist Shirley Mancino’s instruction and honest criticism.
On July 11 and 12, from 10AM to 5PM, you can admire Wayne Williams’ mood altering watercolours during the 12th annual Art-on-the-lawn sale at 3054 Rideau Ferry Rd. in Perth. On August 21-23, Williams is participating in the 28th annual Rideau Valley Art Festival at Westport Community Centre (corner of Spring and Concession Streets). You can visit his website to browse through his online galleries, or contact him at 267-3835 or via email if you would like to request a visit to his home studio at 5 Inverness Ave. in Perth.