Bill attended Barnstable High School in Hyannis, and his art teacher was the accomplished mural painter, Vernon Herbert Coleman, who painted more than 100 murals for the WPA. Bill had a chance to apprentice with him at several jobs such as a mural in a furniture store about maple furniture, showing a New Hampshire landscape. “After high school I used to come home weekends from Boston and in my spare time work with him on murals all around Cape Cod. He used to let me do a lot of the underpainting before he did the finish work. There is a mural of the Exeter Falls across from the Seacoast Artist Association gallery in the Edward Jones office that he did for them that is of the type that I worked on with him.”
Growing up on Cape Cod, he developed a feel for the ocean and dunes at its beaches. After moving here to Seacoast NH, he added marshes and the nearby islands to his repertoire. Bill graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art, and then accepted an art teaching position in Southern NH with a break in the US Army. He then taught at Oyster River High School in Durham for 30 years. While there, he enjoyed fifteen years as one of a three-member faculty team teaching a multi-disciplined humanities course, American Studies, with Alex Herlihy and the late Elizabeth Whaley. During and after 40 years of teaching, he never stopped painting.
This from his daughter Lisa Childs Wilson: “What really sticks out when we remember growing up in our home is Mom and Dad nourishing and encouraging our sense of curiosity and creativity from a very early age. Now it’s such a joy for us to see Dad, all these decades later, still so passionate about his art – and other folks’ artwork. At 90, he still gets up every day, albeit a bit more slowly, eager to get into the studio, bring some paintings to the gallery to set-up for an exhibit, and of course connect with, walk the beach with, and have breakfast with his friends and fellow artists. What we’ve learned about Dad, beyond his obvious love for his family, is he is never finished; there’s always something next to do or to look forward to.”
Bill has mentored many local artists and art teachers. He is currently an exhibiting member of the Seacoast Artist Association in Exeter and has been a member of the NH Art Association in Portsmouth where he was on their hanging committee for many years.