The Northwest has a tradition of artists working long into their careers. It is an unusual few who can claim five decades of successful contribution to our art world. William Turner is one of those rare breeds. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Northwest Art and the Tacoma Art Museum. Locally, he was included in Bellevue Art Museum’s Pratt Teaching Artists show a couple years ago. Although nearly 80, he goes to his studio nearly daily, and most recently completed a six-foot commission for a client in Seattle.
Turner’s life was not always art. Like many of his generation, Vietnam took him to the battlefield. After earning his BFA from UPS in 1964, Turner enrolled for Naval Officer Candidate School. He served as the Gunnery Officer on the USS Radford, completing two cruises. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, about which he jokes, “Aw, they give those to everybody.”
Upon returning home, he entered the graduate art program at the UW. He studied with Alden Mason, Jacob Lawrence, and Michael Spafford, whose influences have a profound effect upon his work, Turner’s first public exhibition was in 1970 for the 56th Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum. His first solo exhibition was in 1979 at the Kiku Gallery, Seattle. Today, he is represented by Ryan James Fine Arts, Kirkland.
Turner’s abstract paintings create a vibrant field of color and energy whereby figures or landscapes shape a rhythmic imagination evolving out of his process of painting, always, to jazz. He seeks color juxtapositions, for inspiration. “I am always hoping to see something interesting or come upon a juxtaposition… I store it away in the back [of my mind] and just take that information when I’m painting,” he explains. Turner’s paintings draw in the viewer to fanciful spaces, inspiring the viewer to find their own images in the work. His paintings evolve by putting down layer upon layer “I play with colors and see what works and what doesn’t work, and when I finally get in that stage like the piece is painting itself, it’s thrilling.”