The Robson Art and Design Masters award allowed William to fully focus on his MA in Visual Practise and to broaden and build upon his already established art practice which involved painting hard-edged abstract compositions.
He said: “The support and financial investment from the Robson Art & Design Masters Award favoured my abilities as an artist and my creative vision. It also provided me with the perfect opportunity to mentally expand my creative boundaries and gave me the knowledge that I could be more experimental with my materials going forwards.”
The scholarship allowed William to invest himself and use some of the money to purchase material for his Masters degree show. William created a mural which took six weeks to complete.
He said ‘’it is the most ambitious piece of artwork I’ve completed to date. It required me to step out of my comfort zone and push the boundaries of my usual scale of working’.
‘’I genuinely feel that without being awarded the scholarship and experiencing the investment benefits attached to it, I wouldn’t have been able to act upon my ambition to pursue painting the wall mural due to the financial restrictions I would have had, and subsequently the skills that came with the process I wouldn’t have accomplished to that level of professionalism’’.
William added: “With the financial resources I had available, and the free wall space on offer in the University’s Priestman Building, the opportunity to create my first large-scale mural became a possibility I could pursue.’’
‘’I believe that by obtaining the scholarship, I have been able to enrich my skills as an artist to a higher level and have managed to successfully achieve the new style of painting I envisioned at the start. Even beyond the scale I initially had my sights on.’’