far and away

The mountains were made with an "Alexander knife" in homage to the technique of the "old master painter from the far away hills" using magic white. I met Bill Alexander and saw him painting numerous times, he would start and complete numerous paintings in a day at my local art supply store (J. Pascal Hardware) in a Montréal suburb, where I lived in the mid-60s. I was a young artist already painting in oils and buying Walter Foster books for the visuals. Bill represented Grumbacher then. He was German and spoke English haltingly. I understood it, but did not speak it well at the time either. He had been a violinist until a war injury to his hand caused him to change professions. He showed me how he made his painting knife originally from a linoleum knife and was in talks with a chemist in Oregon to make his magic white underpainting with Safflower oil instead of the linseed oil and turpentine he was using at the time.

Bill painted, exhibited and sold his paintings in store for a number of weeks that summer. I stood and watched most of the time. He went on to have his own "Magic of oil painting" series on PBS emanating from the US west coast in the 70s and had his own line of books, videos, paints and other art products including WF books. Bill and I were to meet again at the PNE in Vancouver where he painted and exhibited his works outside the Gardens arena in 1971. He suggested that I would return to painting someday and I did, but much later.

He eventually retired to Powell River, BC and was replaced by one of his apprentices in the 80s, his successor Bob Ross, who had represented Bill, his products and technique for him until their parting of ways.