Jeffrey T Williams

Jeff was born in a fog, April, 1949, in San Francisco. The son of a career Air Force Pilot, he was schooled in Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Los Altos, California. While living in Japan Jeff was introduced to his first working artist, Paul Jacoulet, an eccentric expatriate Frenchman. His wood prints were a revelation to the young artist. During his high school days he meet and befriended Bill Morehouse and visited his studio many times in rural Sonoma County.

In 1967 Jeff graduated from Homestead High School and enlisted in the Army. He served from 1967 till 1970 including an extended tour in Viet Nam serving on a Special Forces Advisory Team. When he returned, Jeff became activist against the war by becoming an organizer for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War until the end of the war in 1975.

Jeff studied Art at Homestead High School, De Anza Jr. College and Sonoma State University where he graduated with a B. A. in Studio Arts in 1977. Jeff’s most direct influence were his teachers that came out of the post World War II California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The facility at that time included Mark Rothko, David Park, Elmer Bischoff and Ed Corbett as they were moving into Abstract Expressionism. Among the students of those years were Jeff’s teachers, Richard Diebenkorn, William Morehouse, Inez Storer and Wally Hedrick. At the same time Jay DeFoe, Jeff’s last year undergraduate painting teacher, was a major force on the San Francisco art scene. Each one of them have works in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

When Jeff studied with these established artists as they were transitioning from Abstract Expressionism to Figurative and Landscape painting. Much of Jeff’s art and craft was formed by these distinguished artists. In 1976, Jeff was invited by Bill Morehouse to get involved with Christo and Jean Claude's Running Fence Project in Sonoma and Marin Counties in 1976.

As he learned his art and craft in college, he spent summers in Yosemite, rock climbing and living the gypsy life in camp 4. As his skills developed he was able to scale the big walls in Yosemite Valley as well as working at the Yosemite Mountaineering School. It was during this period Jeff was inspired with an original idea about redefining the American Landscape.

For centuries artists have painted landscapes. One quality every landscape has is the perspective of a horizon between the earth and the sky. Jeff was inspired by the perspective of thousands of feet of rock intersecting the horizon of the earth with no reference to the sky. Painted from the perspective of a climber looking down the face of El Captain or Half Dome in Yosemite, his paintings are painted in an “Impressionistic” style. While not rendered in a realistic manner, when the viewer sees the perspective it is not unusual to feel a sense of vertigo. No one else in the world does this. Each painting is a unique contribution to the American Landscape School of Painting and a unique investment.

After art school Jeff struggled to make it in the art world. He worked as a illustrator for a few years and at the age of 30 he started working in the advertising industry. As oppertunities came along Jeff was able to take advantage of them. This evolved into corporate technology training positions for a Fortune 500 company. When the "tech bubble" broke Jeff started his own web design company, Williams Web Works.

During these years he had the chance to travel around the world and experience the art of different cultures including trips to; Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, Japan and Viet Nam. He has also traveled in Europe including; England, France, Spain and Italy. Jeff has also visited Mexico, many of the Caribbean islands as well as French Polynesia and Hawaii.

Jeff returns to the art world with a new appreciation of art and life. He currently lives with Leslie Williams, his wife of 20+ years, in the Sonoma Wine Country. They have a grown daughter and art major in college, Rémy Elizabeth Williams.