I met Bill back in 2006 when he was my art director at our last graphic design job. The funny thing about the “recession” is that it lead not only myself, but also Bill towards our true passions in art. Bill would spend his days being an art director and his weekends on his hobbies of traveling and creating art by pastel or painitng. Then one day, Bill was another victim of layoffs and budget cuts. That was probably one of the best things that could have happened to him. Bill was formally trained in commercial art and design and had a wonderful, long career in advertising. So when life gave him a little hiccup, he decided to spend his time working on his oil paintings and doing what he truly loved.

Bill is an amazing painter and completely self-taught. He and his wife, Ginger, love to take trips to various small-towns, which are the inspiration for his paintings. I was so happy when we finally picked a date for his portrait session at his home. Since he didn’t have a headshot or any type of current photograph of himself on his website, it was time for one. I wanted to capture him in his working environment and our number one rule was to not be cheesy! We agreed that there would not be any photographs of him with an ascot and holding a paint brush. This session was so fun – chatting about our new “work” and how nice it is to do we we love. I had never visited Bill’s wonderful Clintonville home and enjoyed taking a tour to figuring out which area to use as a backdrop. Of course, his basement studio was a perfect match. I was able to photograph him where he spends most of his time, painting the interesting scenery that he finds while traveling.

If you would like to see more of Bill’s work, his art is online at williamvoisard.com. The images on his website are just a very small portion of what he has created.