William Neal

Born in Guildford in 1947, William was brought up in the village of Bramley, Surrey. He gained a Diploma in Art and Design at the Guildford School of Art, and followed a diverse career in the graphic arts working for the BBC, Pitman Publishing and C.C.S Associates, a leading design group in London's West End. It was from C.C.S that he met Greg Lake, and went on to work for Emerson, Lake and Palmer producing cover designs for the two million selling albums 'Tarkus' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. His work was also used by other rock bands during this period such as Stone the Crows, Audience, The Mick Abrahams Band, the Upsetters and numerous reggae bands for Trojan Records (the Motown of Reggae).
From 1971 he concentrated on painting full time, holding many exhibitions until he met Stefan Knapp in 1978. This proved to be a major turning point in his career becoming Stefan's studio assistant and close friend. Stefan's influence as an internationally famous enamellist and painter together with his kindly direction and encouragement has laid the basis for all of William's work today.
Although Williams work bears no resemblance to the scale and symbolism of Stefan's work, the studio discipline and long gradations of colour will always be hallmarks of this unlikely yet highly beneficial meeting. Stefan died in 1996.
Today William works from his studio in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway. The theme of peace, colour and harmony permeates all of his paintings, many of which depict his specialist subject of the Galloway landscape by moonlight in watercolour. His paintings continue to be instantly recognisable and enthusiastically collected. To date over 5000 limited edition prints have been sold, and his paintings were recently exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art.

Penny Neal

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