Painter

Bill painted into his mid-20s but gave it up after university to pursue his work in theology. Thirty years later, he returned to painting by taking a drawing workshop (to master shape, form and perspective), followed by a workshop in color theory, and a number of courses in painting. Four years later, after 26 years as Professor of Pastoral Theology, he retired to paint. His passion now is Art.

He prefers working in abstracts (primarily in acrylics) because the viewer can bring personal life experience to it: I am intrigued when a painting touches something within another person, when something is seen that I had not seen, when the painting assumes a meaning and depth that is unique to the viewer.

Unlike the organization required to teach, Bill finds that art allows a freedom of being. A blank canvas presents him an opportunity for form and colour to take shape which over time takes a particular direction and life of its own. Often, however, canvases present a struggle (like life) where a direction leads to a dead end and only by retracing the journey on canvas and beginning again (a new road) can the meaning, the form, the colour emerge.

Bees in a Box © W (Bill) Nelson

Blue Mood II © W (Bill) Nelson

Evolution © W (Bill) Nelson

Falcon © W (Bill) Nelson

Grid Roads and Ponds © W (Bill) Nelson

Path © W (Bill) Nelson

Planning a Plague © W (Bill) Nelson

Red Trees © W (Bill) Nelson

Skyline © W (Bill) Nelson

The Window © W (Bill) Nelson

Winter © W (Bill) Nelson

Zen © W (Bill) Nelson

In the late 1950’s, I was introduced to the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Confronted with two paths diverging in a yellow wood, and not being able to take both, the figure in the poem chose the one that wanted wear. The last two lines of the poem are: "I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference." Most of us, however, take the road more traveled, wondering at some later time in our life what would have happened if we had taken the road less traveled.

Website: www.nelsonart.ca

Email: hobbit.hole@shaw.ca

Telephone: 306-221-2538 (cell)