Tony Williams comes from a graphic design background, he studied life drawing and graphic design at Sutton Art School. This background lends to his work as he applies similar philosophies as he did within his design studies. His subjects vary from near his North Devon home, or further afield with composite dockland subjects. These are often stylised from his inspired by black and white photographs he took in London in the 1960’s. These pictures have depicted large plain slabs set against detailed warps, chains, crane steelwork and cables which impair a setting sun or a rising moon. There is often room for a small distant atmospheric painting within the picture.  Working from a pochade sketch, pencil drawings and his back up photographs; Williams finishes his paintings predominantly at a studio. He has continued to work in a studio environment throughout the entirety of his career. Although his earlier work delved into the environment of a mechanical and industrial world, a shift appeared and Williams main areas of interest became of Rural landscape, bullocks and cows, horses being shod, Marine subjects and surfaces beneath water.

Although his body of work has been focused in figurative expression it has been in a contemporary impressionist way and continues to be even to this day. Williams is increasingly fascinated with the possibilities of abstracting large scale industrial based subjects to the point of a blur, distancing the viewer from a distilled dream like vision, taking a detailed mass object and shifting it to a blend of a colour and texture.

“I paint in oils onto plywood panels made with either a gesso only surface, or, gesso onto canvas which I have mounted on the plywood support. Increasingly, I make larger panels with a deeper square edge and similarly gessoed or mounted with canvas.  The surface texture is often an integral part of the painting. I will sometimes apply a ground colour in sympathy with the subject and dry this or, work wet onto a white support with a dark, loose mix of oil paint which I wipe out to draw a dynamic under painting which will dry before further work. The first few minutes of painting in this method will determine whether I continue or not. The image must excite the eye to drive the work onwards.  Very often I will produce a small sketch in oil, say, 6”x8” which is the pochade size. These can sometimes be hard to improve on later” – Tony Williams.

Williams is an associate member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and winner of the Charles Pears Award. Williams has shown at the ROI and has been included in four consecutive RSMA exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, in 2020 Williams was elected a full member of the RSMA.