William Hawkins - Artist 1895-1990

Summer is an active time here, family events, dog walking, trail hiking and garden tending taking up a large part of it. On top of that we've been hit with a heat wave here on the Olympic Peninsula.  Yet, art is always on the mind.  William Hawkins is an artist I've been aware of for awhile, but this summer I've been finding out more about him and looking at his art wherever I can find it.  I just discovered today that as well as his paintings there were several pencil drawings in his body of works, which was around 500 pieces. 

 ARCHITECTURE

 

 MAN ON HORSE

Williams Hawkins was born in Kentucky in 1895, moved to Columbus Ohio in 1916, and spent most of his adult life there. He served with the army in France during WWI working as a grave digger. He did paint in the 1930's but did not take up art full time until 1979. He painted on large pieces of plywood and masonite as well as creating the pencil drawings.  There are said to be lost works from his earlier years of painting too. 

SNAKE AND EAGLE

He was discovered by another artist by the name of Lee Garrett who helped him enter one of his pieces in Ohio State Fair where it won 1st place in the amateur level. The rest is history. Williams Hawkins is one of the the most highly collected outsiders.  One of his paintings recently sold in auction for $70,000.  Don't expect to see him on our little gallery anytime soon.  But take a look at his art on line and there's also a short documentary about him at, http://foundationstart.org/artists/william-hawkins/  
He was a real painter. 
Dave

BOFFO(buffalo)