Artist William Schneider

William Schneider is a contemporary American professional artist who works in an impressionistic manner with oil and pastel. He considers figures, landscapes or still lifes as an opportunity to study the effects of light on real people and objects. Taking ideas for his paintings from life, he seeks to capture and convey the emotional state of a person at a certain point in time.

The greatest influence on him had the work of Sargent, Zorn, Feshin and Sorolla.

William originally studied art at the University of Illinois at Urbana. Nevertheless, after graduation, he began his career in the music business, first in a music store as a graphic designer, then, he made drawings and inscriptions on disc labels at MGM Record Company. In the mid-80s, he joined the board of directors (became a co-owner of investment consulting firm DiMeo Schneider and Associates). However, in 1990 he returned to his first love - painting. William honed his skills at the American Academy of Arts in Chicago, where he studied figurative painting in the class of William Parks and oil painting in the class of Ted Smushevich. After graduation, he continued his education in the workshops of Carolyn Anderson, Dan Gerhartz, Scott Berdick, Harley Brown, Scott Christensen, Caihan Liu, David Leffel and Richard Schmid.

Today, he is a member of the American Society of Oil Artists, the National Society of Oil and Acrylic Artists, the Pastel Society of America, the American Society of Impressionists, and the Society of Portrait Painters of America. In addition, the pastel society of America recognized him as a "master artist working in pastel." He currently lives and works in Crystal Lake, Illinois, with his wife Karen.