Oils, Washed Oils and Acrylics

Bill predominantly worked in oils starting in his college years through the 1960's.  One done while he was in college, the Harlequin, shows Bill's early talents with this unique painting done as a class assignment.  Another also painted in art class while in college, Portrait of Marilyn, was his first profile portrait.  In these early years, Bill salvaged materials from construction sites to paint on.  The Choir Boys is painted on wall board and the Boy in the Fiesta de Flores Parade was painted on antique gold fiber board.  Bill had seen this young boy while in Mexico.  The boy had made his costume by attaching flowers to a tennis racket and his hat.  The Three Nuns were painted on brown paper with thinned oil paint using toothpicks.  Bill was inspired by the hats of this order of Nuns in Mexico.  The Portrait of John was painted on the back of a 'Keep off the Grass' sign and Bill's Self Portrait 1960's was painted on a piece of card board.  Another painting, Boy and Goose, was done on a burlap sack stretched on wooden frame.

The Mother and Child 1962 is also a very unique painting.  Bill painted on a very large (approximately 3' X 4') concrete paving stone then set fire to it to obtain a blistering texture effect of the paint, then sealed it to preserve the unique finish and colors.  Another unusual finish Bill obtained in 1955 on the painting Madonna and Child, was by using crushed eggshells added to the paint to give an aged cracked appearance to the finished work as it dried.

The Mother and Child RIO is an oil wash and also reflects the influence of Mexico.  Bill did several oil wash paintings to be hung in each room of the Rio motel in Oklahoma City.  His sister Theta recalls "It was good to watch him as he painted these.  He could do one in less than an hour".  He also did a large wall mural of the Garden of Eden in the Bar of this motel.   Bill did another large wall mural of women with yokes on their shoulders carrying buckets of water for the Rio motel in Ardmore Oklahoma.
 
For the French restaurant, The Chateau, he did some very large paintings copying the style of Toulouse Lautrec.  The oil painting Piggyback preceded his lithograph works of the same subject.

Over time, Bill became allergic to the oil paints and in the 1970's he began to work with acrylics such as the Boy and Flowers, which is also an example of him working from photographs taken in Central Park by a friend.