Vivienne Williams b. 1955

Vivienne Williams was born in Swansea in 1955. She studied English Literature at Reading University taking a Masters Degree in ‘The Literary Response to the Visual Arts’ in 1978. She spent the next five years abroad, teaching English in Venice and Padua and working in an art gallery in Sydney where she began selling her work for the first time. Returning to the UK in 1983 she spent the next seven years studying and working in a Buddhist Community before becoming a full time painter in 1990, returning to Wales at this time.

Her early work was expressive and very colourful, the subject matter mostly flowers. For the last thirteen years she has concentrated more on still life painting, her palette constantly evolving, her style distinctive.

She was a prize-winner at the National Eisteddfod in 1993. She received a highly commended prize at the inaugural Welsh Artist of the Year competition in Cardiff in 2000 and was invited to be on the panel of judges in 2008. Her work was purchased by the Contemporary Arts Society for Wales in 2003.