William Shields

The early years: Bill was born in San Francisco in 1925, grew up in Texas, and served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. When the war ended he was 21 and, by his own account, finally knew exactly what he wanted to do. He enrolled at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and never looked back. Within a few years he had taken Houston, then San Francisco, then New York by storm.

The illustration career: For three and a half decades, his work appeared everywhere that mattered. Sports Illustrated, McCall's, Time Life. His clients ranged from NASA and the New York Stock Exchange to TWA and Bantam Books. He won Gold Medals from the Societies of Illustrators in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (a rare triple) and was the subject of feature profiles in American Artist, Communication Arts, and Print.

The turn toward fine art: Following inspirational travels to Mexico and France, Shields turned his full attention to fine art. Moving through sculpture, assemblage, figurative painting, and landscape, he ultimately committed to large abstract oils, works of layered, energetic color built on the same rigorous foundation that defined his illustration career. He taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts, the Academy of Art College, the San Francisco Art Institute, and San Jose State University.