Be Inspired Programme

Magazine: Painting Musicians with Will Williams

The joy of painting musicians: Dr Will Williams

These watercolour images celebrate the last twenty years of jazz painting at Burgundy’s Wine Bar in Kendal, at Pizza Express in London, the Kirkcudbright Jazz Festival, at the Mill Gatehouse and at the Gatehouse Music Society. It allows me to share some of my paintings, which at present fill countless sketchbooks.   It is also a celebration of quality jazz played by many talented musicians and enjoyed by so many.   

My approach is to do a pencil sketch and careful observation is critical.  Being recognisable subjects is a sure test by the players and the audience, so feature placement needs to be accurate.  The painting is generally done with a Klosinsky sable travelling brush that holds a lot of water and still maintains a beautiful fine point.  The band will often play for about 2 hours with a 30 min break and I can generally complete two portraits during this time.  And that is the end – any attempt to improve afterwards would be highly risky! In painting musicians the advantage is that their expressions are really interesting and certainly not posed, as you would get in painting a model in a studio.  The challenge is to try and capture an expression and posture when there may be quite a lot of movement. Instrumentalists, especially those sitting down, are the best, as they are focussed on their playing and generally in the zone of their music. In contrast, dancing singers, are the real challenge and sometimes with so much movement, as to be seriously difficult.  In those cases ‘less is definitely more’.

My earliest sketch book was a 15 x 20 cms (Fabriano Artistico or Saunders Waterford ‘hot pressed’) and all my watercolour kit could almost go in a jacket pocket! – a few pencils, an eraser, small knife, travelling box of watercolours (Windsor & Newton) and a travelling brush (Klosinsky sable).  During the painting all this has generally got to fit in a very limited area, hopefully along with a pint of beer. Ideally I always try to sit near the front of the audience so that I limit the disturbance to others.  I rarely ask the permission of the jazz players; no one has complained and often the jazz players are unaware and very surprised to see themselves in watercolour!  

I had the great pleasure of painting some very talented musicians at Pizza Express – Sarah Gillespie, Giliad Atzmon, Tammy Weis, Leonardo Di Lorenzo, Bob Baldwin, Michael Lington, Steve Oliver, Jacqui Dankworth, Steve Watts, Antonio Forcione, Al Cherry, Gwyneth Herbert, Christine Tobin, Phil Robson, Klemens Marktl, Jure Pukl etc.  At the end of the gig I show the jazz players my sketches and I always send them an electronic copy.  Sometimes they gave me a CD.  Most of them had been oblivious to my sketching as they were so focused on their singing or playing.  

After 10 years of painting at Burgundy’s in Kendal I got to know so many talented musicians so well!  I will always be indebted to Ted Richards for his support and embracing the joy of painting at the Kendal Gigs.  Also at that time I had started to put a photograph of my weekly Thursday painting and notes online on ‘blipfoto’.  www.Blipfoto.com/willllwynbedw .  That became the invaluable source material for the book I published of the Burgundy paintings.  I did not set out to produce the book. It came about from a long and most enjoyable journey with the jazz, the musicians and the painting over many years.