Join us on November 2nd from 5 to 7pm before the Bruce Hornsby performance for the opening reception for Southern Images by Bill Bailey. Free and open to the public.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Painting is the reason I get up each morning. I can’t imagine my life if I couldn’t paint. I enjoy painting people, structures, and landscapes of the area in which I live. I don’t have to travel to exotic places to find inspiring subject matter. It’s right here wherever I am. Even the same scene varies from day to day, depending on the weather conditions and the season. My greatest sense of accomplishment occurs when I paint a mundane subject in such a manner that it becomes an award-winning painting. However, the greatest inspiration to continue painting comes when someone says, “We bought one of your paintings 20 years ago, and it still brings us joy every day.” What more could I want from my profession?”
BIOGRAPHY
Bill Bailey has been painting professionally for 25 years, since his retirement from the Federal Aviation Administration. He paints primarily the southern landscape and its people in transparent watercolor and occasionally in oil, each in a realistic painterly style. He especially admires the works of Homer, Sargent, and Hopper and strives to keep that style of painting alive in Memphis, although it goes against local trends in the galleries and art schools. His art education has been acquired through continuing education studies at the University of Memphis and various workshops.
He has won numerous awards in local, regional, and national juried competitions. A few of the most recent major awards were:
BEST OF SHOW in the Alabama Watercolor Society 2016 National Exhibition.
A merchandise award in the 2016 National Watercolor Society International Exhibition.
Selected by Watercolor Magazine as one of the “ONES TO WATCH” watercolor artists in the nation and is featured in the December issue for 2012.
Gold Medal winner in the 2012 Southern Watercolor Exhibition in Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia.
BEST OF SHOW in the 2011 Tennessee Art League’s Central South Art Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee.
Winslow Homer Award in the 2011 Transparent Watercolor Society National Exhibition in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
BEST OF SHOW in the 2010 Mississippi Grand National Exhibition in Jackson, Mississippi.
His paintings hang in many corporate and private collections throughout the United States, including Opryland Hotel, in Nashville, Tennessee; Smith & Nephew, Inc., in Memphis, Tennessee; Memphis Funeral Home, in Memphis, Tennessee; Austin Peay University’s permanent collection; and the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee.
