Bill Rousseau
Nowhere can you find better compositions for an architectural landscape artist than in Savannah. It would at first seem a contradiction that buildings and nature would go together so well. But here the precise lines of Antebellum houses and decorative construction abound. Savannah has its famous squares and straight streets, row houses, carefully planned and organized. Of course, the setting for all this is a “forested garden” of live oaks, crape myrtles, azaleas, etc.
This is the contrast that I like to express. The Savannah architecture has an easily recognizable truly attractive pattern, but the natural world has a perfectly asymmetric beauty. Each tree, each plant has a rhythm of its own...the way the leaves have sparse and dense areas, the way sunlight reflects off them in constantly moving patterns, the randomness of the branches changing direction for reasons that only the tree knows.
So when I was a student in the MFA program at SCAD, I got hooked on the above and have been painting architectural landscapes of Savannah ever since. Once in awhile I digress with shrimp boat scapes (same contrast with the sea and clouds), but most of my work is land based.
Oil paint works best for me. Since my paintings are so detailed, a typical painting takes from 20-60 hours to complete over 2 to 8 weeks time.
Bill Rousseau is a graduate of Cambridge University with a Masters Degree in Engineering. He was Director of Technology for United Technologies, retired at 55 and went to SCAD in the MFA program. When halfway through his MFA, Bill dropped out to take care of a family member illness, but by then he was selling successfully. In 2006-2007, Bill was the Interim Director of the Telfair Museums of Art, where he still serves on Committee. When not painting, Bill is either tutoring inner city children at Urban Hope of Savannah in Math or playing tennis. His work can be found at Gallery 209.
Website: billrousseauonline.com
Email: bmrousseau@aol.com