William Alexander [Bill] Sutton was born in Sydenham, Christchurch on 1 March 1917, the second son of John and Elizabeth Sutton. His father, of a conservative Protestant background, was an engineering mechanic and keen gardener; his mother filled their house with books, a piano and art materials. Bill was a pupil at Sydenham Primary School from 1921 and dux in 1929. He then attended Christchurch Boys’ High, in 1930, where his talent for art was recognised and where his life-long interest in calligraphy developed. While still at school he attended evening and weekend classes in art run by Canterbury College School of Art where he was awarded a number of prizes and a scholarship. He then studied full-time at the School of Art, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1937. Following a further year of post-graduate study, including the study of calligraphy, he started his teaching career at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1939, as a part-time taking junior classes. He also taught Saturday morning art classes at Christ’s College.
During WWII, from 1941, Bill served as a conscript in the New Zealand Army, (Home Force) having been ruled unfit for overseas service; his artistic talents were used to camouflage airfields, gun emplacements and bomb stores, throughout the South Island. He also illustrated army publications and painted murals. After the war he went back to part-time teaching at the Canterbury College School of Art,and Christ’s College until heading to London in 1947 for post-graduate study. Although he had intended to stay in London for three years, he returned to Christchurch in November 1948, after being offered a full-time teaching position at the Canterbury College School of Art.
Bill’s travel to London had been funded by sales from his first solo show in 1947 in Dunedin. That same year he was nominated for The Group, which had formed in Christchurch in 1927 to provide a more innovative , experimental environment for exhibiting than the academic salons of the traditional art societies. Many of New Zealand’s best-known artists exhibited with The Group, between 1927 and 1977, including Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, Doris Lusk, Colin McCahon, Olivia Spencer-Bower, and Toss Woollaston. Bill first exhibited with them in 1948.
Bill’s full-time teaching career spanned three decades, a time which was memorable for him and for many of his students. He is remembered for his considerable hospitality and his kindness to his students, many of whom became life-long friends.
He chose to retire in 1969, able to support himself financially, particularly from commissions of portraiture.
He gave generously to many individuals and groups. He was a Council Member of the Canterbury Society of Arts 1949-67, a Member of the Visual Art Advisory Council and QEll Arts Council and a Trustee of the National Gallery, Wellington. Bill Sutton received many major art awards and fellowships including: Canterbury College Medal 1937, QEll Arts Council Fellowship 1973, CBE 1980 and the Governor General’s Award 1984. Sutton died on 26 January 2000.
Bill Sutton is regarded as one of New Zealand’s most important 20th century landscape painters. He also became a renowned portrait artist, painting a long list of New Zealand’s most prominent figures in law, education and business. A high percentage of his works were painted in his Templar Street studio between 1963 and 1995. His large purpose-built studio enabled him to progress several large-scale landscape works at once as well as accepting more portrait commissions. He also had the opportunity there to explore other aspects of art, particularly printing.