As appeared in the November 2002 issue of
Southwest Art
"Painting the Figure"

Once or twice a week, Todd Williams ventures out into the rolling hills and valleys near his home in Siloam Springs, AR, in the Ozark foothills, to paint plein air landscapes. He loves the forests of pine, oak and maple. As appealing as Williams finds the land, though, he is more captivated by another form of natural beauty - the human figure. "Figurative painting has captured my heart the most, because it holds more challenges," he says. "The subject is a person who has a spirit and a soul, so there's an essence about painting a figure that you don't have with a still life or a landscape."

Trained at the Kansas City Art Institute, the artist approached his early figurative works by sketching ideas and enlisting friends to model and bring the concepts to life. He sketched and took photos for reference. More recently, he was inspired to paint a ballet series when he and his wife, Rebecca, helped backstage at their daughter Jessica's performance of The Nutcracker. One such unposed painting depicts a soldier boy, fast asleep between acts with his arms resting on his enormous red hat.

Williams uses powerful design and elements such as color, value, and edges to create interest. A painterly, abstracted approach serves as a doorway to draw the viewer into the painting. - written by Lynn Pyne Davis