Step into the world where architecture meets art. From blueprints to brushstrokes, this exhibition explores Chris Williams’ journey from architect to artist through stunning sketch and wash works inspired by Albany’s charm.
On display and sale 1 – 29 June 2025, gallery open 9am to 5pm daily.
Artist Bio – Chris Williams
Chris has lived here in Albany since 2016, and about two years ago he became aware of the Albany Outdoor Plein Air Painting Group and their weekly Thursday morning sketching and painting activities. Now a regular attendee with them, it was that experience and with their encouragement that resulted in the confidence to mount this, his first public exhibition.
With a professional career in architecture, it was that background that developed his understanding of scale, proportion, shape and perspective in terms of both buildings and the environment generally whilst sketching.
All of Chris’s architectural documentation was pre CADD, drawn manually with a pencil and then Rapidograph ink pens and the line work involved a t-square and set squares, and working drawings were originally hand painted with water colour washes. The fun part now is to move outside these well honed practices and to experiment with the adventures and challenges of loosening up that line work and not being so strict with uniform colour washes and keeping between the line work,
Part of Chris’s early architectural training involved attending Drawing Techniques 1 and 2 at Perth Technical tutors including Leon Pritchard, David Gregson and Arthur Russell, guided us as we explored light and shade, silhouette and form, whilst always being mindful of the spaces between the objects and not just the subject matter. All of this was a wonderful training base for his 45 year career, and subsequently his more recent sketching activities here in Albany
The mastery of water colour washes is still therefore something relatively new to Chris and to this end he recently attended one of Andy Dolphin’s Pen and Wash Workshops to learn more of working with a limited colour palette. All of these sketches displayed here have been produced over the past two years, and a number are plein air using black pen and coloured marker pens, a medium that Chris finds works well in an outdoor environment.
