Buz z Williams

B uzz Williams is a bear of a guy, standing six feet, four inches tall

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY Buzz Williams with strong, massive hands that reflect his history as a builder. Though he has always had a creative streak, Williams does not "look" the type to be an artist, but that is what he is in many ways.

Williams moved from Aspen to Newport and then in 1978 to Nantucket. He has been drawing and painting since childhood when his aunt, a Boston artist, encouraged the talent she saw. He has also been playing guitar since he was 14, and writes most of his own music. As for his large abstract paintings, which fill the basement studio/gallery he shares with wife and jeweler Sarah Hutton, Williams said he has never been interested in working in a traditional style.

"There are other people who can paint much better trees than I can, but I like the ability to express. It gives me a picture of myself for a moment or two — it gives me a picture of my relationship to the world," he said. "For me, painting is like freezing music in color. It's like catching notes. I think painting, music and writing are all the same energy source. Some people catch words out of the air, some catch sound out of the air, some people catch color and some can do it all."

"Painting is like freezing music in color," said Williams of this painting titled "C Chord." Williams became serious about his art in 1991, deciding to use putty and palette knives to "scrape" pictures on cabinet-grade plywood instead of using canvas and then color the image from that base.

"I was actually sculpting paintings on plywood, and that's what I do now. It's all straight edge painting," he explained. "I got interested because it's really tactile. Your hands are right in the paint pulling out pictures. This [spontaneous abstract painting] is more like trying to catch a layer of color. It's not so much emotional art. I'm curious to see what comes out in a given moment of the environment. It's a pure moment that takes form."

Williams took a course with Dutch painter Frederick Frank based on Frank's 1972 book "The Zen of Seeing" and spent time with him at his Warwick, N.Y. home and studio. Otherwise, he taught himself by studying art books and others' work, attending critique classes at the Artists Association led by Ken Layman and experimenting with his chosen technique until about three years ago when he reached the point he desired.

"I've had a lot of nice accidents along the way, but now it's actually doing something I want to do," he said, adding that he only uses Benjamin Moore latex house paint. "It will last forever. I use too much paint to buy tubes — I'd be broke in a week."

Williams said in the future he may write a memoir, but has no plans for his painting other than to let his creativity flow freely in the way his music flows, without rigid structure.

"I never know what's going to happen until I start," he said. "I still have so much curiosity about the empty canvas that I'm plenty happy right now with that mystery that demands a story. I don't have more to look forward to other than the next sheet of wood.

"Everything around me is inspiring. There are some songs that make me want to paint something — it's really the cultural environment. Anything that excites a passion deserves a response. It's really just a lot of fun." I