EAST MEETS WEST IN COLOR THAT SINGS

Bill Buchman is a popular and prolific artist whose expressive work draws on his extensive musical background. An intimate familiarity with what is meant by a harmony, a melody, and a rhythm informs his every move with the brush. He is known for his abstractions, characterized as “symphonies of space, form and color” and his figures, described as “lightning bursts of energy condensed into a fine line”. His paintings and drawings offer a paradox: the works are bold and assertive yet their openness invites viewers to enter them and imagine their own stories.

Bill says, “ I make art as a way to transcend everyday experience. My painting language is built around the idea of communicating harmony, optimism, joy and meaning through a fusion of painting and music. My aim is to make paintings that are inspirational and therapeutic. My art is based on a lifelong immersion in Zen painting, Jazz, 20th century Modernism and Dada. These have led me to the only place possible… to myself. It is from from here I paint the rhythms, melodies and harmonies of my body and spirit.”

Bill Buchman’s career spans more than 50 years as an artist, musician, educator and author. A native of New York State, Bill started his art education in his teens studying painting and drawing with well-known teachers Victor D’Amico, at the Institute of Modern Art, East Hampton, NY, and Fletcher Martin, at the Albany Institute of Art, in Albany, NY. Later, he attended Cornell University, School of Fine Arts, studying with abstract expressionist Robert Richenburg and playing with the Mojos, a popular Ithaca rock band. As a true participant of the 60’s, Bill’s spirit of adventure and Zen approach to life soon led him to new explorations and endeavors: living on the Lower East Side of New York playing with blues bands, in Alaska fighting forest fires, in Boulder and Aspen, doing street portraits, playing free jazz, being a natural foods cook and even becoming a practicing astrologer. Three days at the culminating event of that time, the Woodstock Festival, was a inspiring moment for him, confirming his unshakeable optimistic and spiritual view of life, a hallmark of his activities to this day. In 1971 Bill entered the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and dove into the amazing jazz milieu in Boston of that period, studying with piano greats Jaki Byard and Ran Blake and receiving both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from NEC’s pioneering Third Stream Program. Active musical years in Boston, Cape Cod  and Los Angeles followed playing with some great musicians. In LA, Bill had private studies with art teacher David Pacheco that inspired Bill to realize his art aspirations. From that point, while continuing to play music, Bill returned to visual art as his principal focus. In service of this goal, in 1981, he relocated to Europe, first in Amsterdam, then in Paris. After four years of European travel, research and continuous education, Bill settled in Copenhagen, Denmark and then worked, exhibited, and performed with success in Scandinavia for the next 16 years. In 2001 Bill moved to Sarasota, Florida where, in addition to painting, exhibiting and performing, he became an in demand teacher of figure drawing, abstraction and creativity. Along with many years of teaching locally at the Ringling Longboat Key Center for the Arts and at the Venice Art Center, Bill travelled the US as an ambassador for Savoir Faire  (the leading purveyor of European art materials) giving workshops and seminars demonstrating his unique approaches to realizing musical composition, Zen and Modernist techniques in visual form. He has made five instructional DVD’s on these subjects as well as written a popular and innovative book on drawing, “Expressive Figure Drawing” (Watson-Guptill/Random House 2010).  With many exhibitions to his credit, Bill’s art may be seen in private and public collections in the US, Denmark, Sweden, and England. Bill now lives in New York City, where both he and his ceaseless artistic and musical activities are thriving.

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