William Bowyer

William Bowyer (25 May 1926 – 1 March 2015) was a British portrait and landscape painter, who worked in a traditional manner.

Life and work William Bowyer was born in Leek, Staffordshire. He studied at Burslem School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, where his tutors included Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight.

In 1963, he won the City of London Art Award. From 1971 until 1982, he was Head of Fine Art at Maidstone College of Art. In 1988, the National Portrait Gallery acquired his portraits of miners' leader Arthur Scargill and cricketer Viv Richards. The same year the Marylebone Cricket Club commissioned him to paint the bicentenary game at Lord's Cricket Ground.

Although a regular exhibitor in club and group shows, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, his first London solo show was not until 1983, when a retrospective was held at Messum's gallery.

Artist Ken Howard said of Bowyer's work: The content of his pictures is the artist’s life, whether it be his beloved river at Hammersmith, Walberswick in Suffolk – where he escapes whenever possible – his friends and family, as seen in his strong and challenging portraits, or his life-long love of cricket. Bill Bowyer’s work communicates with us directly. It gives us a way of seeing the world and above all it is life enhancing.