William Woodward

I love everything about painting murals. They stimulate my imagination to break out of the ego shell, to get out of myself — exstasis — because they force me to explore realms beyond my personal experience; to stretch my talent, imagination, and physical ability far beyond the comfortable necessities of easel painting.

Murals are works of art that decorate walls and tell a story; hence they are sometimes referred to as “Narrative Art.” Murals are designed for an ambulatory spectator, someone moving through time and space — as opposed to easel paintings, which are seen from a fixed vantage point.

Easel paintings, on a smaller, even intimate, scale can be created spontaneously. There is nothing spontaneous about murals. They are perfect examples of “planned pictures.” They proceed in stages: the conceptual sketch; the preliminary cartoon; the projection onto the wall; and the final execution in color. Their scale allows for complex compositions; the pictorial dynamics can be orchestrated symphonically, with different elements that have room to be exploited on a grand scale.

I feel happy to be a part of the tradition of this oldest form of art — murals — from the prehistoric walls of Altamira, Lascaux, the Tassili, and every culture worldwide, enduring even to our own time.