William FEATHERSTON

William FEATHERSTON
1927
2009

Featherston was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Forging a birth certificate as he was too young to enlist, he joined the navy during WWII and served in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, returning home in 1946, a self-admitted uneducated boy of 19.

After acquiring enough qualification (a BA through night classes), he attended the Ontario College of Art and became a high school teacher. Meantime his primary interests became political, the peace movements and social justice. A socialist teacher friend he made during that time, one John Jones from Liverpool, convinced him to travel (1958) to Britain to teach, which he did, first in Ireland.

'... I followed up with a trip to England which lasted for 12 years. I had shown in Canada (two solo exhibitions with Jack Pollack in Toronto) but England was the real beginning of my art career. I settled in St. Ives, Cornwall and was soon immersed in a fabulous art community. I associated with artists working at that time: Francis BACON, Patrick HERON, Barbara HEPWORTH, poets and playwrights: W.S. Graham, John Antrobus…. among many others.

I began a sculpture career showing in St. Ives, Penzance and eventually London, Edinburgh and the continent. My work was fundamentally abstract but contained references to architecture and hints of configuration.'

In 1971 he returned to Canada. 

media

Painter, sculptor

exhibitions

2024: Truro School Art Collection, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro (30 Jan-18 May)