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William Blackman
June 2, 2009 Demo Artist
William H. Blackman was
born in San Diego, but spent most of his early years in West Los Angeles.
He became interested in art at about the age of 12 when he painted his first
oil painting. In high school he majored in art so he could experiment with
various mediums to find ways to interpret his ideas.
Attended Woodbury College to learn advertising and the graphic arts.
In 1960 he and his wife Shirley began their family and moved to a new home
in the San Fernando Valley. Meanwhile, Bill had become interested in the
fine arts again.
His position as an advertising production manger put him in contact with art
directors and they would lunch together and then visit various art galleries
in the area. He began oil painting again as a hobby.
In 1964 he made an important contact through an associate at his agency.
This person was a vice-president at Aaron Brothers Galleries and purchased
paintings for them. He said they could possibly sell some of his seascapes
so Bill began painting in his spare time. Gradually, they sold more than he
could produce so Bill made the decision to leave the advertising business
and devote his time to painting.
In 1965 the Blackman's moved to Thousand Oaks, California. He began his
career as a fine artist and to this day resides in Thousand Oaks. He
contracted with Aaron Brothers to be his exclusive agents and began
specializing in seascapes. After a few years he added landscapes and some
other subjects. Bluebonnet landscapes and Padre Island seascapes were
popular in the Dallas showroom.
He and his family vacationed frequently in Hawaii and that became another
source of inspiration. There, he was represented by the Davis Gallery in
Honolulu.
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A good relationship with "Barney" Davis continued
after the closing of the Aaron Brothers Wholesale Division in 1980. He
painted for the Davis Gallery for about 8 years until they closed due to
illness. Afterwards, he was contacted by Kobayashi Art Enterprises and has
been represented by them.
In 1980 he began teaching in private studios around the country,
demonstrating his method of painting various subjects. During the latter
part of the 80"s he was approached by Susan Scheewe Publishing to author and
illustrate a book showing his way of painting. The first was published in
1990 and he has authored four other books since then.
He demonstrated six different instructional video tapes that were produced
by his artist friend Gary Jenkins. Gary, who was helpful introducing Bill to
the teaching business, was also an artist for Aaron Brothers Galleries.
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