Roger Williams

Roger Williams – travels began at an early age and led him to his art career. His father was an artist and advised Roger not to follow his career path. Roger graduated from high school in Alamosa, Colorado, saved enough money to travel to Europe and hitchhiked around. There he spent much of his time at the art museums - he was intrigued with the work and studied it as much as he could.

After five months of travel, he returned to the States and acquired a scholarship to study art at the University of Denver. Soon after he received his Masters of Arts from Adams State College in Colorado. He started teaching right away at the university level and in workshops and at the time was working in watercolor and oils.

Roger developed his own techniques through studying books from his father's collection as a professor of art. Roger abandoned his idea of painting in an ultra-realistic manner and moved toward his own style. When he moved to Santa Fe, he discovered pastels and soon about 70 percent of his work was in pastel.

"Most of my pastel work is now studio work," he says. He adds that he often does a plein-air study in oils on location, then brings that home to create a large painting in pastel. "Once a subject has caught my eye, I decide first if it will work better in pastel or oil. I look for a good design, a sense of continuity, that will make a painting. I like every subject-figures, architecture, landscapes-I paint them all. I start with thumbnails, lots of them, whether on location or in the studio. I do them in charcoal, and work to get the design right."