28 - William Otton

Morning Along the Bay Trail, Marin County, June 2021
Oil on canvas
22 x 27 ¾ x 1 inches
Courtesy the artist

William Otton draws on his long career as a university professor, museum director, and local Marin community when he paints. Morning Along the Bay Trail (2021) reflects a common theme in his work, the painting within a painting. As demonstrated by the present work, Otto constructs illusionistically convincing architectural spaces for his precisely-rendered pictures. By using a highly-naturalistic style to create a trompe-l’œil effect, he explores his interest in creating expansive pictorial spaces on two-dimensional surfaces. His paintings often contain homages to iconic artists like Paul Cezanne, Edward Hopper, and Henri Matisse.

Otton works in a studio at MarinMOCA. He holds three degrees in art and art history from California State Universities and Illinois State University. After completing his academic studies in the early 1970s, Otton began exhibiting his work in regional and national competitions. In the late 1970s, he showed with the Nancy Lurie Gallery in Chicago. His work is in corporate and individual family collections in California, Oregon, and the Midwest. His current work exhibits his ongoing interest in combining formal abstraction with representation.