Windmill, Bruges

Location

Country: Belgium
City: Brussels
Place: British Embassy, UK representation to the EU & UK delegation to NATO

A path leads uphill to a watermill on the edge of a forest in Bruges. Rendered in watercolour, the painting is tightly controlled and built up through layers of green and brown wash. William Robinson has painted many landscape scenes ranging from views of Belgium such as Ostend harbour and Bruges canals, to cart tracks and village greens in Oxfordshire. He works in oil, watercolour and also in pencil. Some of his later oil paintings appear to refer to Victorian times with groups of people engaged in various activities such as mending sails and bringing in the hay.

Robinson was a member of the Department of Environment Art Club which began in 1972 when art clubs belonging to several Government departments were merged into one. There were 100 members of the club whose main aim was to further interest in the arts and to foster freedom of self expression. A studio was provided for members and there was an annual exhibition.

William (Bill) Robinson is a self-taught artist who worked as a commercial designer in the 1960s, prior to retiring for medical reasons in 1987. Over the years, he has painted many scenes from Hampshire, where he lives, and developed his own style based on direct observation of the natural world.

Places

Subjects

ladder, topography, landscape C20th, tree, path, windmill

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

William Robinson (1940 - )

Title

Windmill, Bruges

Date

c1978

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 46.20 cm, width: 36.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Department of the Environment Art Club, October 1978

Inscription

BR: -BILL ROBINSON-

GAC number

14290