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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by William H. West
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following biography is from Paul Benjou:
William West started out as a farmer in Pennsylvania, but gave up pitching hay at the age of 21. Subsequent vocations landed him in construction (he built 54 homes), automobile manufacture, millwork at a planing mill in Florida and finally overseeing a Westinghouse pattern shop
for thirty-five years. He was also writing insurance policies for forty years "as a hobby".
He attended Slippery Rock College. Mr. West's compulsion to paint started in
1965 with a scene he envisioned sixty-six years earlier and transposed to
canvas. Self taught, and at the age of 84, he began painting and did not
stop until his passing in 1975. With limited funds for paint and canvas, he
painted on masonite, canvas, canvas-board, and even the back of cardboard
real-estate signs. He "traded" his art to his nephew in exchange for simple
wooden frames whenever he could.
Mr. West's style is primitive, often fanciful and amusing and sometimes compared to the genre of Grandma Moses. His use of bright colors and little regard for perspective invites a certain charm to his paintings.
His primary residence was in North Trafford, Pennsylvania, and his work is in the private collection of Senator Hugh Scott.
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