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Born and raised in
Santa Cruz, California, Bill is a self-taught watercolorist, favoring
landscapes and seascapes of the California Coast…. so far.
An award-winning
graduate in architecture, University of Notre Dame, Bill has developed his
watercolor techniques and style over the last 25 years…while raising a
son and foster daughter, teaching pre-school, coaching youth soccer and
leading a Boy Scout troop in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bill did a lot of
camping in California and the Sierra Nevada, and subsequent paintings of
those regions. He received a California Arts Council Grant in 1981 to
develope YOMAMA ART CENTER for
Eddy Street Boys’ Home/Catholic Social Services, San Francisco.
In 1993, his wife,
Marilyn, had several paintings framed and arranged his first solo show.
Inspired, ignited and needing ocean, the Fravels and their son, Emery,
relocated to Davenport-on-the-Central Coast. Bill promptly fixed himself a
studio, the Whale Hedge, named for the large topiary shrub that borders
the studio and their home. In 2001, Bill started offering “free”
demonstrations of his techniques every Sunday at 10 am at the Whale Hedge.
Bill opened the Whale
Hedge to the public in November 1996. Since
returning to Santa Cruz County, he has served as a SPECTRA artist
for Public School, sponsored by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County.
He is also active in organizations concerned with planning and development
in Davenport and on the North Coast.
Bill is an active
artist member of the Santa Cruz Watercolor Society, the Santa Cruz Art
League, and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. He is an associate
member of the National Watercolor Society, the American Watercolor Society
and the California Art Club.
Bill Fravel
Watercolors have been shown at the Aegis Gallery (Saratoga, Calif.) the
Coast Gallery, Wailea (Maui), the Pacific Coast Gallery at Lahaina (Maui),
the Ventana Resort Gallery (Big Sur, Calif. and at private salon shows in
Pasadena and Balboa Island/Newport Beach.
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