Bill Stewart

I recently relocated from the Elephant and Castle in London to the Devon/Cornwall Border.

Many of my paintings come from mind wanderings that seem to take on a surreal meaning.  They started many years ago as I hitch-hiked around the USA, long before I took up painting.  I used to sit in the passenger seat imagining trees falling in huge forest swathes as we passed through them, ghosts of native North Americans and pioneers floating in the air.  Painting eventually became a way of capturing those wanderings.
That place of ‘visual’ thought is where I base most of my paintings now.

I am a founder member with Matt Galpin and Nigel Swift of FODO, an exhibition and discussion focus for contemporary artists: 
German Contemporary music composer, Dorothee Eberhardt features my work on CDs of her music

I studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London (1986-9), where I was awarded a 2:1 degree and college colours for football.  I completed a postgraduate diploma at the Royal Academy Schools in 1992.  At the RA I was awarded the Gold Medal for ‘excellence in painting’ along with the David Murray Landscape award and the Edward Stott travel scholarship.

I have exhibited in the UK, Poland, the USA, France, Spain and Germany.  Solo exhibitions include Landmarks 2 at Plough Arts Torrington, Vibrations and Sanity at CastleBude, Landmarks at Southside Arts Southampton, the Paul Smith Shop NYC, USA, Cricket Hill Gallery NYC, USA, The English Garden Chelsea, London, Soldiers Bibles, Southwark Cathedral, London and Something at the International HQ of the Salvation Army.  I exhibited in John Moores 60 in 2018 with my painting TreeAirplaneTrap now in the collection of artist Sean Scully who went on to include another of my paintings in his exhibition Hidden UK Hidden Ireland at Flowers East London. I have exhibited in 3 Creekside Open exhibitions (APT Deptford),  chosen by Mark Wallinger, Dexter Dalwood  and Alison Wilding respectively.  Other notable group exhibitions include the Threadneedle Prize, Discerning Eye (invited by Christopher Lloyd, then Keeper of the Queens’ Pictures), Royal Academy Summershow (x 4) and Into the 90’s (Selected London postgraduate painters).