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Bill Fravel Watercolors
EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS
q Temescal Square Solo Show, Oakland, Calif. 1993
q Biannual Statewide Watercolor Exhibition, Triton Museum, San Jose 1998
q Various Santa Cruz Watercolor Society Exhibitions
q Various Santa Cruz Art League Exhibitions (starting in 1957) - Winners' Circle 2000
q Open Studios, Santa Cruz County 2000 - 2005; Sedona 2006, 2008
q Taste of Pacifica Annual Art Show Pacifica, Calif. 2000, 2001
q Spirit of the Coast, Group Show, Costanoan Resort 1999
q Salon Shows in Pasadena and Balboa Island, Calif. 1999, 2002
q 2003, 2004, 2005 Statewide Juried Exhibition, Santa Cruz Art League - Award Winner
q 2004 Los Gatos Art Assn. Juried Exhibition - Philip Linares, Juror - First Place, Watercolor & Honorable Mention, Watercolor; People's Choice Award for "Pondering the Patriot Act"
q 2005 Los Gatos Art Ass. Juried Exhibition "Alaska"
q 2005 Annual Juried Membership Exhibition, National Watercolor Society
Winner, Ruth Rossman Award for "Lost the Wife at the Sixth Tasting"
q 2005 Featured Artist, "How Did You Paint That?": 100 ways to paint seascapes, rivers and lakes, Volume 1, published by International Artist Magazine (invitational) with "Past Ventana"
q Farewell Bill Fravel Benefit Solo Exhibition for the Santa Cruz Art League's Annual High School Show, January 2006 – fundraiser for annual High School Exhibit awards fund
q 2006 Sedona Arts Center Annual Members Exhibition, Best of Show, Best Watercolor with prize, “Forget the Dog”
q Random Acts of Art Exhibition, “ Rare Book”, Sedona Visual Artists’ Coalition, November 2006
q Marilyn Sunderman Foundation “Paint the Night” Invitational, May 2007
q Plein Air Affaire 2007 – Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History 3rd Annual Plein Air Festival, June 2007 Invited for 2008)
q 3rd and 4th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival Invitational October 2007 and 2008, Sedona, Arizona
q Sedona Library Annual Wreaths Exhibition – “Yield, Ye Merry Gentlemen” – Roundabout Wreath
q Arizona Plein Air Painters – Inaugural, invited Signature Member, 2008
q City of Sedona Project Grant, 2008
WORKSHOPS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
q WhaleHedge Sunday Fravel Demonstrations - 2001 - 2006
q Cupertino Fine Arts League
q Art House Gallery Demonstrations 2002 - 2005
q Carmel Art League 2002
q WhaleHedge Presents Watercolor Class - Santa Cruz Art League 2002, 2003, 2004
q Ventana Gallery and Resort, Big Sur - 2003 - ongoing
q Plein Air Painting with Bill Fravel, Santa Cruz Art League workshop June 2007
q Erickson Studio - Gallery, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona Winds, L'Auberge, Briar Patch Inn, Sedona - Demonstrations - 2006, 2007
q Northern Arizona Watercolor Society – Demonstration January 2007
q Sedona Visual Artists Coalition – Demonstration February 2007
q Sedona Arts Center Community School Faculty 2007-2008
q Plein Air in Tuscany with Betty Carr – Field Expedition 2007
q Plein Air Painting in Watercolor – Santa Cruz Art League workshop, 2007
Born
and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Bill left a promising career in
architecture in 1975 to pursue his art after a chance encounter with
the book "Ways with Watercolor" by Kautsky. This ended his meteoric rise in architecture and launched his hot air balloon. He is self-taught. The pursuit continues.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame,
Bill has developed his watercolor over the last 30 years...while
raising a son and foster-daughter, teaching children at a pre-school,
coaching youth soccer and sports, and leading Boy Scout Troops in the
San Francisco Bay Area. As a “Big Brother” to 4 boys (3 now in their 40’s), Bill did a lot of camping in California and paintings of the Sierras. He received a California Arts Council Grant in 1981 to develop Yomama Art Center at Eddy St. Boys’ Home, Catholic Social Services, in San Francisco. He has coached more than 20 youth soccer teams over the years.
Bill’s
wife (WOFA) wrenched a bunch of paintings from him, stole them away to
the framer and produced his first solo show in 1993. Over
70 paintings were sold at gallery prices. Inspired, ignited and needing
ocean, Bill and Marilyn and their son, Emery, moved to Davenport-on-the-Central Coast, California. Bill promptly fixed a studio for himself, The WhaleHedge,
named after the large shrub topiary he shaped, bordering the studio and
their home. The fine art and ambiance of the WhaleHedge Studio have
been featured in print media all the way back to the Maine coast. Bill was
an active member of the Santa Cruz Watercolor Society, the Santa Cruz
County Art League and a former SPECTRA PROGRAM Art Teacher at Pacific School across the street from the Davenport California Studio.
In May 2006, Bill moved to Sedona, Arizona to continue the journey. He was a member of the Sedona Arts Center, the Sedona Visual Artists Coalition, the Arizona Watercolor Assn. and the Northern Arizona Watercolor Society. He participated in Sedona Open Studios 2006 and 2007, and was a featured guest of Marilyn Erickson at the Erickson Studio-Gallery in Sedona in June 2006 and January 2007, 2008. In July 2006, Bill received Best of Show and Best Watercolor at the Sedona Arts Center's Annual Members Exhibition, with prize. He
has received special invitation to be a featured artist in the 2007
Sunderman Foundation “Paint the Night” event, the 2007 Sedona Arts
Festival, 2007 and 2008 Sedona Plein Air Festivals. and continues to be
an invited Special Guest Artist at the annual Santa Cruz, Calif. Plein Air Festival. In 2008, he received a Project Grant from the City of Sedona and was honored to be named a Signature Member of the Arizona Plein Air Painters Assn.
In late 2008, the Fravels moved to Las Vegas to be closer to Emery The
Son and Moms in California, and to participate in a more metropolitan,
international arts community with diversity of patronage and
magnificence of an "arts and culture vision."
VOLUNTEER ART ACTIVITY
q Santa Cruz Art League - Board member & Chairperson, Annual High School Exhibition, 2002 -06
q Santa Cruz County Arts Commission - District #3 - Commissioner 2002- 06; Chairperson 2005
q Advancing School Arts Program -2002 Planning Artist member, Pacific School, Davenport, CA
q Hearts for the Arts - Benefit for the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County – School Arts Program
q Winter Art Days in Davenport - to benefit the Coast Dairies and Land Acquisition
q SPECTRA Program of the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County - Pacific School, 1998
q Yomama Arts Center, San Francisco- Founder, with grant - California Arts Council 1976
q Free demonstrations at public and private schools, senior centers, hospitals and teen centers – California and Arizona
q Sedona Arts Center, Northern Arizona Watercolor Society, Sedona Visual Artists Coalition – exhibitions volunteer 2006, 2007, 2008
q Art Mentor, Red Rock High School student for Sedona Visual Artists Coalition – 2007, 2008
q Board Member, Sedona Community Advisory Group, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Sedona
q Big Brother to Mason, Sedona High School Student, 2008
A fanciful blend of realism and impressionism, Bill's watercolors of Hawaii, the California
coast, the Sierra’s, the Southwest and the SF and Monterey Bay Areas
reflect his appreciation for the beauty that is the West. He works
primarily in watercolor, in a "wing it" style. He approaches his work with a zest for the fun and fanciful. Seldom drawing on the paper, he paints directly and experiments freely. At one moment loose, at another tight, his paintings reflect his on-going search. Other painters may find success with a particular approach and abandon the journey. Fravel abandons the success and continues the journey, often taking the path of most resistance.
Highly regarded by his fellow artists, Bill is known as an "Award-Waiting Artist." Bill Fravel Watercolors can be found in private collections in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. His paintings reportedly share wall space with Van Gogh, Turner and Cox. His work has shown in galleries in California, Arizona and Hawaii. The Ventana Gallery in Big Sur and the Big Sur Gallery in Carmel currently represent him in California; The Windrush Gallery in Sedona and The Rever Gallery in Last Vegas.
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