Bill Janssen
Impasto Watercolors

Bill Janssen, Denver, Colorado

I am Bill Janssen from Denver, Colorado.  I am a self-taught painter. Self-taught in that my father taught me and he was self-taught. I have been drawing and painting, and making photographs for fifty years. I have a BA in history, trained at music conservatory, and have played music professionally.
I often use primary colors, familiar images (doors, windows, umbrellas, geometric shapes, etc.) and the impasto in watercolor lends a texture to the paintings not often found in the watercolor medium.

“Bill Janssen is the greatest saxophone player in the world…” – Adrian Belew

I use watercolors. They give me many options: light, diffused, opaque backgrounds with thick, impasto-style knobs of paint give the depth and texture I look for. My hope with each painting is to make something with quality attention that was not there before.  These paintings exist in part to achieve a state of relative awareness for myself. They are autobiographical in that subjects are imprints from my memory. The geometric abstractions, doors, windows, umbrellas, fans, hats, are working towards a synthesis of my past. They are what drive my art.  — Bill Janssen, July 2021