William Bowyer RA (d. 2015)

Bill Bowyer was born in Leek in Staffordshire in 1926. He studied at Burslem School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He was elected Royal Academician in 1981 and is a member of the Royal Portrait Society; his portraits of Arthur Scargill and Vivian Richards hang in the National Portrait Gallery.

Bill is renowned not only for his strong portraits but also for his many glittering paintings of the River Thames, often near his home in Chiswick, and for his powerful paintings of the Suffolk coast, especially Walberswick. One of his great loves is cricket and his work is hung in the Museum at Lords as well as in many international collections around the world, including Vancouver and New Jersey, and in the UK at the Royal Academy, the Arts Council, and the collection of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.

His work can also be seen at exhibitions of the New English Art Club, of which he was a leading figure for many years, and at the celebrated annual Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. With his sons, Jason and Francis, Bill Bowyer is continuing the great heritage of contemporary British figurative drawing and painting.