At the Desert's Edge: Watercolor Sketches by Bill Woolf

At the Desert's Edge
Watercolor Sketches by Bill Woolf

Exhibition Hanging & Opening at
Marsam Hotel (old Sheik Ali Hotel)
Opening February 21, 2015
Luxor-West Bank, Egypt

Excerpt from Introduction to Exhibition:
From the Nile to the desert’s edge at the Theban Hills that lie several kilometers inland from Luxor’s west bank of the Nile is an area rich in agricultural, historical, and archeological meaning. The heat and light of this locality create a wonderful arena for a painter. The colors and sights of this narrative explode around me and form the basis for my watercolors in a reality of abstraction, chaos, and color.

The Marsam Hotel (the old Skeik Ali Hotel) is the oldest rest house on the West Bank of Luxor. This hotel has a long history related to Theban archeology, archeologists, tomb robbers, artists, and travelers and is close to most of the historical sites of the Theban West necropolis. Staying on the West Bank of Luxor reminds me a lot of the small village where I live in Italy. People know each other, they are friendly neighbors, and live a rural life more relaxed than in the city.

I am an American artist living on the Italian island of Sardinia. I have taught painting, drawing, graphic and computer arts, along with other subjects, in both the United States and Italy. I studied art at The University of WisconsinMilwaukee and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I have a Ph.D. from Cornell University and was a practicing psychotherapist before art occupied all my life and resulted in my returning to school for an MFA in Studio Art which I received from Florida State University. I arrived in Italy at the end of 1999 and taught art in American universities in Florence before moving to Sardinia where I currently live.