As appeared in the September 2005 issue of
Plein Air Magazine
" Todd Williams: Leaps Of Faith "

By KENT LESLIE WHIPPLE

TODD WILLIAMS’ LIFE CAN BEST BE
described as a series of spiritual leaps of faith.
He’s made these jumps with relative ease, as his
religious beliefs have carried him forward with simplicity
and graceful determination. “One thing that
keeps me going is my faith,” he says. “I believe I am
simply an instrument chosen and filled with a gift.”

Today, Williams is enjoying his due measure of
success as a fine artist, continually gaining in national
prominence. His life and work are marked by balance and harmony. Through his artwork, he comments on what he sees as the source of this success.

Says Williams, “As an artist, I want to create a mood or feeling in which the spirit of the painting says more about the Author and Creator than the subject.”

SPIRITUALITY IN ART
Through his life journey, Williams has learned to tap into the spirit world that lingers in all of us. He shapes moods quietly, without resorting to sentiment or unnecessary romance. His creativity is stirred by gray evening sunsets, snowy hillsides, hidden waterfalls,
and late-summer gardens — nature at her most serene. He paints his themes with a limited color scale, relying on tonal hues to create delicate and subtle relationships in the changeable moods of light and atmosphere. Williams seeks to create a personal, suggestive, and dreamlike world without presenting the detailed aspects of nature.

Williams’ oil paintings, created in the studio and en plein air, are tranquil and pensive.
However, his gifts become most apparent in his plein-air work.
These paintings cause viewers to take “a meditative breath,” allowing them to get lost in his tonal landscapes. In Lake Irene, for example, Williams gently guides the viewer’s eye along the reflections of the clouds on the still water, leading to the pine trees on the other side.

A self-described Tonalist, Williams has a style that is an amalgam of the Barbizon School touched with the Hudson Valley painters and great Impressionists. He chooses his forms from nature but creates his impressions from his heart. “Natural beauty found within one’s heart can correspond to the natural beauty of light on still life, landscape, and figure,” explains Williams from his Siloam Springs, Arkansas studio.
“I am simply looking for balance and harmony. I try to have a sense of peace or joy…enjoying
the moment that God has given us. I want viewers to take that with them. I want to touch them emotionally.”

A STEADY PROGRESSION
Williams’ evolution as an artist began at the Kansas City Art Institute, a far cry from the small Nebraska town of his childhood. Through his formal education, he honed drawing and design skills. Having interned in illustration and design at Hallmark Greeting Cards in Kansas City, Williams looked for illustration work after graduation, finally accepting a position with DaySpring Greeting Cards in Siloam Springs, where he worked for more than 10 years.
He and his wife, Rebecca, say the city has been a perfect place to raise their daughter,
Jessica, and an ideal place for Williams to develop his studio.


In recent years, Williams has moved far beyond the label of “illustrator.” He has gained recognition as a juried participant in many group exhibitions throughout the country, and his fine art has been featured in several major industry art magazines. He remains thankful, however, for his illustration roots. “Each move has always been an arrangement to make me a better artist,” he says. “Without the Art Institute, I wouldn’t have had Hallmark. Without Hallmark, I wouldn’t have had DaySpring. Finally, without DaySpring, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to set up my studio and move to being the artist I am today.”

“Todd Williams’ success really doesn’t come as a surprise,” says Dirk Meyer, owner of Meyer Gallery and one of Williams’ first representatives. “He has the ability and skill to take the viewer to a peaceful place within themselves. He uses a subdued palette blended into poetic, serene scenes. He doesn’t resort to ‘tricks’ to create his work. It is true tonal work from the heart.”

Friend and mentor C.W. Mundy adds, “The correct way to measure success in the traditional academic art world of today is very simple: Perseverance — coupled with hard work — is absolutely essential. Todd Williams not only fits that description to a ‘T,’ but he also is motivated with a clear vision of expectation. He has proven to the collector world that he is a bona fide American Impressionist to be reckoned with.”

INVESTING IN OTHERS
To paint plein-air landscapes, Williams typically heads into the slopes and valleys near his home in the Ozark foothills, because he loves the forests of pine, oak, and maple. He is sometimes accompanied by fellow plein-air artists. “About two years ago,” he says, “I was invited to become an honorary member of a local group of painters, the Plein Air Painters of the Ozarks. As a studio artist, you spend so much time alone in front of the easel, isolated. I have really enjoyed the camaraderie and fellowship that I can find only with other artists out there in the field.”

This continued journey with other artists led Williams to his new role as teacher. “I am taking that first step in late 2005 by going to Eastern Europe,” he explains. “I will be teaching inVienna, Austria. Then I am going to Prague to teach a three-day workshop. It will be so interesting.

With teaching, I have the same goals that I have when I complete a painting: I want to sharpen my skills and problem-solve, but most important, I want to have an investment in another person’s life…to touch their spirit and soul.”

Written by KENT LESLIE WHIPPLE

KENT L. WHIPPLE has been writing about artists and southwestern art for 20 years.
He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his Jack Russell terrier, Roger. They are often found
roaming Meyer-Munson Gallery.