Alex Williams

Born in Reading in 1942 he attended St. Martins School of Art and The University of Wales, Swansea where he qualified as an art teacher. He was Head of Art at St. Michael’s College in Hertfordshire before setting up his own design and print studio in 1974. He pioneered early T Shirt printing and worked in the Pop Art style on stage and restaurant design and textiles.

In 1977 he sold his company, Just Williams, and with his wife Valmai, bought a small holding in her native Wales. He designed Richard Booths Independent Hay campaign before moving with his family to Los Angeles where he began his career as a full time artist.

On returning to the UK in 1981 he setup an etching studio at The Honey Cafe, Bronllys where his work can still be seen.

A feature in Country Living Magazine led him into the world of licensing. His paintings of farmyards, animals, tractors and country life appeared on fine bone China, greetings cards, prints, jigsaws, tinware, fabrics and table ware. 

In 1991 he met Celia Dearden, they married he began a new life painting portraits of houses and exhibiting at the Fosse Gallery. After a period as Artist in Residence at The Griffith Art Centre, Connecticut, they returned to the UK and a residency at Ventnor Botanic Garden on the Isle of Wight where he now lives.

Numerous exhibitions, residencies and commissions over a long career have established Alex Williams as an artist of rural life in the tradition of British romantic art.

“It continuous to be an interesting journey,I was born in the war and I grew up in a world that was being repaired and reinvented. Then came the new music and the new art. There have been lots of ups and downs and I work in my studio every day painting which continues to be a gas”.