William Berra

Bill Berra has lived in some very beautiful places inspiring him to look for the beauty in nature wherever he has traveled. The rolling hills of Pennsylvania Dutch country, the green mountains of Vermont and the dramatic landscapes of New Mexico all have contributed to Berra’s palette and the technique that he uses to paint his richly colored works.

William Berra attended York Academy in York, Pennsylvania. This small arts academy was a springboard into the larger and more prestigious Maryland Institute in Baltimore. The Institute was affiliated with the widely recognized Rhode Island School of Design. During his study there, Berra was inspired by the Macchiaioli school of artists. This school, which started in the 1850’s, was founded by eleven artists who focused their style of painting upon a dynamic use of light and shadow (“chiaroscuro”).

Macchiaioli painters relied upon an expressive use of shadow created by patches of light. They painted with loose, free brush strokes, making small studies or vignettes of a landscape working outdoors much like the Impressionists of France. This outdoor or “plein air” way of painting brought the artist closer to true color and light found in nature. Obviously, painting outdoors also brought great inspiration to the artist to try to capture that light, shadow and accurate color. This process became very important to the Macchiaioli’s painting process and has also been part of William Berra’s ever since studying their work. -

Berra’s pursuit of the perfect light and subject matter has taken him to Vermont, Oregon, and the San Francisco Bay. He now travels in the French and English countryside to capture the resplendent beauty of Europe’s most beautiful landscapes. There are the beautiful, richly colored sandy beaches of Southern France, the grandeur of Tuscany’s orchards and vineyards, and the magnificent architecture of Venice. Add to that grandeur the simple pleasures of life and you have the perfect scene for a William Berra composition. The mixture of dramatic color, brush technique and the quaint vignettes, have all contributed to Berra’s growing success.

Whether the Italian Macchiaioli or the Impressionists school, the pursuit is still the same. Each artist is trying to leave the viewer with a feeling; an “impression.” They were not really interested in giving the viewer all of the information recorded on the canvas. This feeling is what contributes to Bill Berra’s rising popularity. The viewer is taken into the simple scenes of Southern France, Tuscany, Normandy, even Carmel and left with the impression of a warm invitation to visit those places over and over again through Bill Berra’s eyes.