| Bill Sutton | |
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Bronze bust of Bill Sutton as part of the Twelve Local Heroes sculpture |
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| Birth name | William Alexander Sutton |
| Born | 1917 |
| Died | 2000 |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Influenced by | Rita Angus |
William A. Sutton or Bill (1917–2000) was a leading portraitist and landscape artist based in Christchurch, New Zealand. A graduate of the Canterbury College School of Art (now the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts) he returned there to teach for more than 30 years.[1]
He was tutored by many well-known Canterbury artists, including Colin Lovell-Smith and Archibald Nicoll and gained his Diploma of Fine Arts in 1937. In 1947 He travelled to London where he studied for a time at the Anglo-French centre in St John’s Wood. On returning to New Zealand in 1949 he took up a teaching position at Canterbury University College School of Art and was appointed senior lecturer in 1959. During the 1940s and 1950s Sutton followed in the tradition of fellow Canterbury artists, such as Rita Angus, Colin and Rata Lovell-Smith and Louise Henderson, developing a distinctive interpretation of the Canterbury landscape. Sutton continued to teach at the school until his retirement in 1979. Sutton continued to paint until 1993.
His paintings are typically signed / credited as WA Sutton. Much of his work shows the influence of New Zealand regionalism as with fellow Cantabrian Rita Angus.[2]
Public figures he painted included John Cawte Beaglehole.[3]
In March 2009, Bill Sutton was commemorated as one of the Twelve Local Heroes, and a bronze bust of him was unveiled outside the Christchurch Arts Centre.
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