William Neal (born 1947) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

artist painter and graphic designer who achieved international recognition after working for the progressive rock band

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

. During the last 10 years, and alongside his watercolour work, William has produced a series of large abstract paintings complemented by musical compositions written specially for the works by himself and other collaborators. Successful shows featuring these series of paintings were held in the Gracefield Arts Centre in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

in 2007, and the Mill on the Fleet in Gatehouse of Fleet in 2009.

Biography

Born in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

in 1947, Neal was brought up in the village of

Bramley, Surrey Bramley is a village and civil parish about three miles (5 km) south of Guildford in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, south east England. Most of the parish lies in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Within its bounda ...

. He gained a diploma in art and design at the

Guildford School of Art Guildford School of Art was formed in 1856 as Guildford Working Men's Institution and was one of several schools of art run by Surrey County Council. After several mergers with tertiary art institutions it became part of the University for the ...

(now the

University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Inst ...

), graduating in 1967. Following a diverse career in the graphic arts, he worked for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, Pitman Publishing and C.C.S. Associates, a leading design group in London’s West End. It was from C.C.S. that he met

Greg Lake Gregory Stuart Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP). Born and b ...

and went on to work for

, producing cover designs for the two million selling albums

Tarkus ''Tarkus'' is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in June 1971 on Island Records and on Cotillion Records (Atlantic) in August in the U.S. Following their 1970 European tour, the group retu ...

and

Pictures at an Exhibition ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', french: Tableaux d'une exposition, link=no is a suite (music), suite of ten piano pieces, plus a recurring, varied Promenade theme, composed by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The piece is Mussorgsky's ...

. The original paintings were hung at

Hammersmith Town Hall Hammersmith Town Hall is a municipal building on King Street in Hammersmith. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building. History The building was commissioned to ...

, and photographed by the late

Keith Morris Keith Morris (born September 18, 1955) is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Off!. Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the ...

, a former graduate with Neal from the Guildford Art school. His work was also used by other rock bands such as

Stone the Crows Stone the Crows were a Scottish blues rock band formed in Glasgow in late 1969. They are remembered for the onstage electrocution of guitarist and founding member Les Harvey. History The band were formed after Maggie Bell was introduced to L ...

Audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

, The Mick Abrahams Band, the Upsetters and numerous

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

bands for

Trojan Records Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name ''Trojan'' comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck t ...

.Neal, Penny
William Neal
William Neal Studio - Retrieved 16 February 2012 From 1971, he concentrated on painting full-time, holding many exhibitions until he met

Stefan Knapp Stefan Knapp (July 11, 1921 – October 12, 1996) was a Polish-born painter and sculptor, who worked in Great Britain. He developed and patented a technique of painting with enamel paint on steel, facilitating decorating public architectural ...

in 1978. This proved to be a major turning point in his career becoming Stefan’s studio assistant and close friend. Stefan’s influence as an internationally famous enamellist and painter together with his kindly direction and encouragement laid the basis for all of Neal’s work up to the present. Although Neal's work bears no resemblance to the scale and symbolism of Stefan’s work, the studio discipline and long gradations of colour will always be hallmarks of this unlikely yet highly beneficial meeting. Today he works from his studio near

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

in south-west

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The theme of peace, colour and harmony permeates all of his paintings, many of which depict in

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

, his specialist subject of the Galloway landscape by moonlight. His paintings continue to be instantly recognizable and enthusiastically collected and to date over 5000 limited edition prints have been sold. In 2012, over 40 years since last working with Keith Emerson, Neal's watercolour painting "Moonlit Dunes" was used for the cover of Keith's latest CD "Three Fates Project" with

Marc Bonilla Marc Henry Bonilla (born July 3, 1955) is an American guitarist and composer, who has worked as a sideman to artists such as Keith Emerson, Ronnie Montrose, Glenn Hughes, Edgar Winter and David Coverdale. Career Early years and film work ...

, Terje Mikkelsen, The Keith Emerson Band and the

Munchner Rundfunkorchester The Munich Radio Orchestra (German: ''Münchner Rundfunkorchester'') is a German symphony Radio orchestra, broadcast orchestra based in Munich. It is one of the two orchestras affiliated with the Bavarian Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk), the other b ...

References

External links

William Neal: Artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neal, William Living people 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters British graphic designers 1947 births Album-cover and concert-poster artists 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists