I was born in Banff Alberta, grew up in Surrey B.C. and finished high school on Vancouver Island.  With a certificates in graphic and fine art from the Kootenay School of Art, I finished  a fine art degree granted by the University of Victoria at Notre Dame University of Nelson in 1976.  I  grew up in an art household  as my mother (Frances Harris) was making designs for the family business and landscape paintings for the fine art world.  She continues to be an inspiration and her love of the B.C. landscape is, I hope, sometimes reflected in my work. 

I have explored various art avenues such as printmaking, photography, screen printing and drawing but became more focused on landscape painting with acrylics and oils in the last fifteen years. I try to express a straight forward visual language in my paintings.  This is an ongoing process building on the usual experimentation of substrates, colour, texture, composition and subject matter to strike that chord we can relate to. It’s never ending and ever changing. 

Regarding subject matter, the B.C. landscape has so much to offer and I am continually amazed at the variety of material that is available from traveling through the province, by area and by season. I am always trying to view the scene as the pristine environment unaltered by the human machine that could be grinding away just outside the edges of the canvas. 

In 2015 I moved to Central Saanich on Vancouver Island and now focus on west coast scenes. I have the pleasure of painting once a week "en plein air" with the Alfrescoes, a Victoria group of landscape artists. 

I hope my work connects me to those viewers who likewise see the value of the wild space we all share.

My work is also represented by the Lloyd Gallery: www.lloydgallery.com

William Watt, December 2016