Will McCarthy as painted by his friend and fellow painter, John Harris.
I know that my best oil paintings develop out of memories of landscapes from both the recent and distant past. I understand the creative process that is best for me and I know what to do with it. I no longer have to reinvent the wheel when startng each new painting because I have a clear sense of how it should develop.
My process begins with drawings made in pocket-size sketchbooks. I must have 50 or 60 small sketchbooks filled with notations about things I've just seen or landscapes remembered and imagined. I take the books with me everywhere - on canoeing trips, to sporting events, on my travels. I make quick sketches or record ideas that might be developed into oil paintings. None of the drawings is very detailed, but each has enough information to remind me of ideas when I'm in my studio.
Each of these luminous and mysterious images of trees against sky, field, and river evoke a subtle variation of light and atmosphere. The arrangement of the trees - whether standing in solitude or in pairs or in large groupings seem at once inevitable and yet surprising, formal yet accidental.
I work on wood board, paper and canvas using several layers of gesso before priming the surface with cadmium red base, a quick sketch using charcoal is used to lay out the design, then the paint is applied. I work in layers using thinned down oil color, building on these layers with glazing techniques the colors are adjusted and brought up to completion before final coats of varnish are applied.
Light has come to play an important part, and when I look back over this body of work, I feel it speaks about spiritual places, places that contain a quiet inner light, radiating an ethereal whisper, the places we see every day.
- William McCarthy
Career Highlights
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
October 2012 Center for Contemporary Printmaking
2011 Sandra Morgan Interiors, Greenwich, CT
2011 Muse Gallery, Columbus, OH
2010 Red Raven Gallery, Lancaster, PA
2010 Wynn- Falconer Gallery, Chatham, MA
2009 Kelher Liddell Gallery, New Haven, CT
2008 EBK Gallery, West Hartford, CT
2007 Amuse Gallery Columbus, OH
2007 Willoughby Wallace Library Branford, CT
2006 A Muse Gallery Columbus, OH
2004 Artistically Bent Columbus, OH
2004 Premiere Fine Arts, New Hope, PA
Trudy LaBell Fine Arts, Naples,FL
2004 Middlesex Community College, Middletown,CT
Weir Farm Trust, Wilton, CT
Langman Gallery, Willow Grove, PA
Trudy LaBelle Fine Arts, Naples, FL
Ezra & Cecile Zilkha Gallery
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Sandra Morgan Interiors, Greenwich, CT
2011 Senator Joseph Libermans Office, Washington D.C
2010 Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven, CT
2010 Patterson Club, Permanent Display, Fairfield, CT
2008 Hartford Golf Club, Permanent Display, West Hartford, CT
2005 Ritz Carlton, Permanent Display, Washington D.C
2004 Gallery 125, All Things Same, New Haven, Ct
2003 Citywide Open Studios, New Haven, Connecticut
2002 Center for Contemporary Art, Norwalk, Connecticut
2001 Premiere Fine Arts, Lambertville, New Jersey
2001 Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut
2000 Albers Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
1998 DFN Gallery, New York, New York
1998 Sarah Morthland Gallery, New York, New York
1998 William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, Massachusetts
COLLECTIONS
Mayo Clinic, Transplant Wing, Rochester, Minnesota
Bell Haven Club, Greenwich, Connecticut
Ritz Carlton, Washington, D. C.
Cirque du Soleil, Las Vegas, Nevada
Hartford Golf Club, West Hartford, Connecticut
Patterson Club, Fairfield, Connecticut
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middeltown, Connecticut
Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
New York Public Library, New York, New York
PUBLICATIONS
Atmospheric Landscapes: The Story of An American Artist, 2023
Primi Pensieri, Collection of First Thoughts, 2012
Primi Pensieri II, 2014
Primi Pensieri III, 2016
"Days of Wonder", Collection of recent work, 2011
2009 New Haven Register, Arts Review
2006 American Artist Magazine Feature Article, "Discovering Art in Memories"
2004 The Art Guide
2002 American Bungalow
2002 – 2003 Pottery Barn Catalog
2001 Florida Design Magazine
2000 Chamber Music Magazine
1996 Investing in Dreams, Connecticut Commission on the Arts Statewide Museum Collection
AWARDS
2021 Best in Show, Pt. Clinton Art Fest, Highland Park IL
2017 First Place for Painting, Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, MN
2014 First Place for Painting, Westport Fine Art Show, CT
2014, Under the Oaks, Vero Beach FL
2011 First Place for Painting, Westport Fine Art Show, CT
2010 First Place Painting, Boca Raton Art Museum Show, Boca Raton, FL
2009, Painting Award, Armonk art Festival, Armonk, NY
2008, Painting First Place, St. Stephens Art Festival, Coconut Grove, FL
2006 & 2007, Judges’ Choice, Mt Gretna Outdoor Art Show, Mt Gretna, PA
2006 First Prize for Painting, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
2006 First Prize for Painting, Glastonbury On the Green Fine Art & Craft Show, CT
2005 Best in Show, Fine Art, Fine Furnishings Show, Providence, RI
2005 First Prize, Painting, Armonk Outdoor Art Festival, Armonk, NY
2005 Best in Show, Columbus Art Festival, Columbus, OH
2002 First Place in Oil, Glastonbury On the Green Fine Art & Craft Show, CT
2002 Best in Show, WCSH Sidewalk Art Festival, Portland, ME
2002 Jurors Choice Award, Columbus Art Festival, Columbus, OH
GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2010/2011, Invited Artist Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2007, Guest Artist Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2005/2006, Guest Artist Center for contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2003 – 2004 Guest Artist, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, Connecticut
2001 – 2002 Weir Farm Residence for Visual Artist, Wilton, Connecticut
1994 Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant
EDUCATION
1988 – 1994 Wesleyan University, Various Graduate Liberal Studies in Printmaking
1970 – 1972 Columbus College of Art and Design, Received Scholarship