| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | William Duma is best known for his exultant, colour-intense oil and acrylic paintings of mountains, forests, rolling prairies, snowscapes, and rivers. Born in Calgary in 1936, he received his Honours diploma in Fine Arts from the Alberta College of the Arts (later Alberta College of Art + Design) in 1962 before travelling to and studying in Europe between 1962 and 1963. His journeys through the American Southwest, Newfoundland, Ontario, Yukon, British Columbia, and his home province of Alberta inform his Fauvist and Expressionist renderings of autumn, winter, and clouds, while Duma’s depiction of summertime lakes and rivers arise from his experiences with fly fishing. Duma explains that the goal of his work is to convey his love of nature as a means of for sensing “the integral relational ship of nature, the universe, and man.”
Duma has participated in many solo and group exhibitions inside and outside Canada. Various corporate and private collections in Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe—including those of the Mendel Gallery in Saskatoon and the Massey Foundation in Ottawa—host his works. The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts elevated him to membership in 1995, and the Alberta College of Art + Design granted him a Founders’ Award of Excellence in 2002. Duma remains a member of the Alberta Society of Artists.
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