Bill Sawyer

Although his work is visually recognizable and widely exhibited, featuring simple architecture, washed out colors, and gaunt figures, details of his life and artistic practice are extremely limited. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he attended Hillsboro High School and graduated in 1954. He is often described as “self-taught,” but one shouldn’t discount his membership to his high school art club, in which he was apparently quite involved. The art club, supervised by a Mrs. Connell, had lofty ideals: “The purpose of the Art Club is to correlate art with other departments of the school so that more students may have the opportunity to learn about drawing, paintings, and crafts and help make Hillsboro a more attractive place in which to work. This past year the members have painted scenery for plays and the operetta, posters and a mural for the library and sponsored a school wide exhibit in the Spring.” 

Following high school, Sawyer was stationed in France with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which was tasked with building up infrastructure ahead of the Cold War. Sawyer claimed that he turned to art  “just to kill thirty months in France,” but art became a passion for him. It also eventually became a career, evidenced by a 1959 exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee, where he had moved at some point following his time abroad. A subsequent exhibition in 1966 sold out. He would travel abroad again, but he eventually returned to his home state for good. By the early 1980s, Sawyer was fed up with the struggle that came with a career as an artist. Though it isn’t known what event in particular prompted his decision, one interviewer explained that Sawyer abandoned painting because it wasn’t profitable and took up so much time.

Most of Sawyer’s paintings are meticulously detailed and carefully composed. Among his favorite subjects are frame houses and barns placed in austere landscapes. An air of mystery frequently pervades. Compositionally, the images are symmetrical, not unusual for a self-taught artist.