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Category: PAINTERS
William H. Bishop was born and brought up in the Portsmouth/Solent area of the South Coast of England. He has maintained a lifetime interest in the sea, as a sailor of dinghies, competitive racing sloops and extensive cruising. For 21 years he was a director of a family owned company which was sold in 1980 upon his father's retirement.
As a boy, he was continually fascinated by the parade of naval and merchant shipping passing to and from the Portsmouth and Southampton area as well as by the ever changing yachting scene; more especially when sailing aboard his father's yachts. From this exposure he began sketching ships and making small accurate models. Frequent visits to maritime museums sharpened his skills where he soon discovered the works of many great marine artists; the works of W.L. Wyllie becoming his greatest love and inspiration.
Just after he left school, his parents moved to a house on the waterfront at the entrance to Portsmouth harbour; right next door to Aileen Wyllie, W.L's daughter. With the support of Aileen Wyllie (which included a present of 50 or more of W.L's brushes) and the help of Richard Joicey R.S.M.A., he was encouraged to submit his work to the prestigious Royal Society of Marine Artists annual exhibition in London. His work was accepted and sold at the preview. He repeated this success for four years running, until the pressure of private commissions made it impossible for him to spare paintings for exhibiting.
Initially many of these commissions came from the Royal Navy; one watercolour of the aircraft-carrier H.M.S. Hermes returning to Portsmouth he put into print and rapidly sold all 2000 prints. This led to a commission from the Mary Rose Trust to paint a large watercolour picture of the recovered wreck for the museum; and then a series of definitive charcoal drawings of parts of the vessel for a museum guide booklet. He was given total access to the warship and researchers archives to produce his work.
At this time, following the advice of several London galleries, he had been working up his ability in oils and shortly afterwards received a major commission from the Royal Navel Museum, Portsmouth for a large oil to feature in their new exhibition of the Battle of Jutland in the 1st World War. Another major exhibition by invitation was the Festival Exhibition of Marine Paintings in Southampton, celebrating Maritime England Year; all three of his paintings sold, one even before the preview had opened. At his last showing at an R.S.M.A. annual exhibition one of his paintings was one of the half dozen chosen to illustrate a write-up on the exhibition in the National Maritime History of America's magazine 'Sea History'.
Presently many of his works are in private collections in the U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Oman, Gibraltar, West Germany, Jersey, The Falkland Islands and the U.K.
- Bishop Marine Art : Profile of Marine Artist Bill Bishop
- Historic Classic Yachts - Bishop Marine Art
- William Henry Bishop - Artist - askART
- Artwork of William Bishop - Marine Arts Gallery
- Prices and estimates of works William Henry Bishop - Arcadja
- William Henry Bishop - Artnet