William Ronald

William Ronald Smith (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998), known professionally as William Ronald, was a Canadian painter, best known as the founder of the influential Canadian abstract art group Painters Eleven in 1953 and for his abstract expressionist "central image" paintings. He was the older brother of painter John Meredith (1933–2000).

Career William Ronald was born in Stratford, Ontario, but he and his family moved to Fergus, Ontario where his father worked as a market gardener. When he was in his teens, he and his family moved to Brampton, Ontario. He attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, graduating in 1951. He worked as a display designer for the Robert Simpson Co. department store, starting in 1952.

Besides painting, he became known as a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) journalist, hosting such shows as The Umbrella ending in 1966 and As It Happens (1969–1972), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Art Institute of Chicago Brooklyn Museum, New York Guggenheim Museum, New York (purchased Earth, 1954, in 1958) Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec Museum of Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Whitney Museum of Art, New York

Awards I.O.D.E. Scholarship, Canada (1951);