ABOUT BILL OPLINGER

      Bill first began painting watercolors in his early teens while living on a farm near Reading, PA.  Although he didn`t pursue it very actively until years later, he retained an avid interest in art.  After majoring in music at Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music and finishing several other graduate music degress, he became a professor of music at the college level. 

      In the early 1980s, while teaching singing and directing choral groups at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Bill returned to his love of painting watercolors. He was soon winning awards in many local and regional art exhibits, including Third Place in the South Carolina Watercolor Society. In 1983, with seven other local artists, Bill founded the Lowcountry Artists, Ltd. gallery, the first co-op art gallery in downtown Charleston.  He is currently an artist member of Waterfront Gallery in Charleston.

     Bill and his wife, Ann, a retired elementary school principal, live on James Island.  They have two married children, Christopher and Elisabeth.  Chris and his wife also live on James Island.  Elisabeth and her husband reside in Kensington, MD.

      Primarily a landscape artist, Bill is most attracted by the organic forms found in nature such as trees, plants, and flowers. Many of his paintings portray the surrounding marshes of the lowcountry.  In speaking of his attraction to watercolors, he says...
 
      "I have always delighted in the transparency of watercolors.  Their vibrancy, their free flow, and the intermixing of colors on the paper never fail to excite me.  Watercolor is a difficult medium to master, yet the challenge of painting freely and yet with some control is a constant source of intrigue.  It is a delicate balance which at times can be very frustrating but at other times can provide a unique, exhilarating joy."