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Will Bullas was born in Ohio and raised in the
Southwest. He has been drawing and painting
for as long as he can remember. Accordingly,
he enrolled at Arizona State University and was
majoring in fine arts and minoring in dramatic
arts when he was drafted. In Vietnam, Bullas'
skills stood him in good stead; his first professional
pieces were pencil portraits of fellow soldiers,
which were sent to loved ones back home.
After returning from military duty he enrolled in
the Brooks Institute of Fine Art in Santa Barbara,
California, where he studied with renowned
instructor Ray Strong. "He was not only a master
of landscape painting," Bullas said, "but a
master of color theory. And he could tell a great
story, too." Bullas graduated with a degree in oil
painting. With the encouragement of his wife,
Claudia, he then quit his printing press job -
reproducing the work of other artists - and
concentrated on his own art.
That was the beginning of a year long voyage
across the Midwest and Southwest, taking Will
and Claudia to dozens of malls and parking lots
where Will sold his work to many appreciative
collectors. The couple settled in Carmel,
California, where Will's exclusive relationship
with galleries resulted in a decade of prosperity
and a growing group of dedicated,
enthusiastic collectors.
Bullas' work has not escaped the notice of critics
and peers. He won the Strathmore Award at
the 1981 Rocky Mountain National Watermedia
Exhibition, the William G. Morrison Award for the
Adirondacks Exhibition of American Watercolors,
and the First Place Award for the 1990 Signature
Membership Exhibition of the National
Watercolor Society. Bullas also won the
California Watercolor Association's 1997 Silver
Medal and he is a proud member of both the
American Watercolor Society and the National
Watercolor Society.
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