David B. Williams

David B. Williams was an Ojibway painter and printmaker born December 26, 1947, at Garden River First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He was self-taught and began seriously experimenting with watercolour techniques in 1977. He lived much of his adult life in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Williams developed a distinctive semi-abstract style that combined fine graphic lines with geometric shapes and stylized images of animals, often evoking life cycles in nature. His imagery featured bold, vivid colours and a framing element of encircling lines. A recurring motif in his work was the inclusion of three red circles and one yellow sun, representing his three sons and daughter. As he explained: "life goes in circles… life is simple."

Williams's work is held in several public and corporate collections, including the Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Department of Indian Affairs, Shell Oil Corporation (Calgary), Gulf Oil Corporation (Calgary), and the Province of Manitoba. He died September 29, 2009, in Winnipeg at the age of 62 and is buried at Garden River First Nation.