William (Billy) McMenemy - Artist Member

Billy was brought up in the 1950's in the Calton in the East End of Glasgow, leaving school at 16 to study Art and Design at a local F.E. college. After completing his diploma he went on to work in illustration and graphic design. He met his partner, they had two children, and he changed career to become more involved in looking after their young family. When the children became adults, he reactivated his passion for art.

He started a day-time course in painting with acrylics at the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Glasgow's Strathclyde University. He also studied portraiture as well as painting with oils. Over the years his work developed enormously through these classes and he began to exhibit his work with some artworks winning awards and finding homes around the UK, Europe and beyond.

He paints mainly using acrylics, starting in a traditional monochromatic underpainting, adding transparent glazes to contrast with final full colour. Ultimately his aim is to explore bolder brushwork and colour so that he can translate into paint the light, movement and contrast that surrounds and inspires him.

In 2017 after submitting examples of work, he was accepted as an artist member of Paisley Art Institute. In 2022 Billy moved house from Glasgow to Ayr where he is currently an artist member of the Ayr Sketch Club.