Douglas Wayne Williamson

Remembering Tom: Unfinished Business

City Gallery | January 14 – March 11, 2022

Artist Statement

A life-long obsession with the growth pattern of trees manifest itself through the contrasting values of sunlight and shadow. Back lit foregrounds revel in stylized motifs reaching for a voice in the iconic Canadian landscape. Reflections of bygone days reminisce of Thomson, MacDonald and A.J. Casson.

I celebrate watercolour’s most powerful attributes: transparency in layers, (for emulation of crystal clear water), darker tonal values and hard edges, to worship the brilliance of the sun’s rays. Often you will see a plethora of bold colour, ruthless in its mission to draw you in for a harder look.

I paint like I do to encourage younger artists to be daring enough to experiment and think outside the box. Originality is the cornerstone of discovery.

Artist Biography

Douglas Wayne Williamson is a self-taught Canadian landscape artist best known for his exploratory works in the water colour medium. He captures the brilliance of the sun using darker tonal values, brazen coloured compositions, and often using harder edges. Celebrating crystal clear water by painting in layers, dominant backlighting motifs, tree stylization and strong line representation are common themes. Wayne’s influences include Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven, aboriginal Cree artist Norval Morrisseau and like J.E.H MacDonald before him, Vincent Van Gogh.

Retired from Canada post in 2016, he spends spring and summer (aside from plein air painting and field sketching trips) organic gardening with his wife Jean on 2.5 acres of beautiful gardens in Acamac. In the fall and winter he works up these sketches into larger works in his woodstove equipped studio. Wayne has been painting since 1998.