Bill Suys OPA
Oil painter Bill Suys is a Signature Member of both the Oil Painters of America and the Portrait Society of America whose greatest joy in life is standing behind his easel, indoors or out, with a brush in his hand. Bill creates studio and plein air works using wide-ranging subject matter: portraiture/figurative, landscape, animals, still life and architecture. Suys paints, teaches, judges, lectures and demonstrates. He has won a great many national and international awards and is proud to serve on the OPA Board of Directors.
Bill’s recent accomplishments include the Dorothy Driehaus Mellin Fellowship Award at the 2019 OPA National Exhibition, Best Body of Work and the Matisse Award at the 2018 Olmsted Plein Air Invitational and the Silver Medal at the 2018 OPA National Salon show. Suys’s work has been selected to hang in 8 OPA National Exhibitions since 2010 (awarded Best Animal in 2016, Animal Award of Excellence in 2017), has been repeatedly chosen as finalist and award winner in the ARC Salon, and in 2013, awarded Best in Show at the Salon International.
In addition to a great many group and one-man gallery shows, event invitations, awards earned, juried show acceptances – and some wonderful editorial coverage in Southwest Art, Fine Art Connoisseur, Plein Air magazine and American Art Collector magazine – Suys’s devotion to his craft, his participation in plein air invitationals and juried exhibitions, judging, and increasingly teaching, have helped him grow not just in reputation but as a soulful painter who believes in lifelong learning, ‘no excuses’, and the power of observation.
Suys believes that ‘a rising tide floats all boats’ and generously shares his acquired knowledge; he is committed to lifelong learning, the quest for excellence, and to creating work that stands the test of time.
See Bill Suys’s interview in Plein Air Magazine’s blog, and Suys’s essay published in the Oil Painters of America blog.