Born to Irish parents in St. Augustine, Florida, William Kirkpatrick, who signed his canvases William Vincent, became an impressionist painter of landscapes, florals, figures, and portraits. He also did murals, including two large ones at Tomasita’s Santa Fe Station restaurant.
He grew up in a cultured atmosphere of art and music; his mother, Eloise, was a painter, and his father, William Francis, played a variety of musical instruments. The young William took classical guitar lessons and wrote poetry.
In 1949, when he was age ten, Kirkpatrick won his first art contest, which was sponsored by the Lightner Museum of Art in St. Augustine. From 1956 to 1960, he spent four years in the Air Force and was stationed at Clovis, New Mexico. He spent as much time as possible in Santa Fe, which he first visited in 1956, and later made his home. He also lived in Tubac, Arizona in the late 1970s.
In addition to pursuing his art, he worked at jobs to make a living to support himself and his family of four daughters. For painting subjects, he traveled widely including to Mexico, the Bahamas, Spain, Ireland, Africa, China, Russia, Greece, Holland, Scandinavia, Hawaii, the Caribbean, South America, and across North America including most of the states. In Arizona, he painted a Grand Canyon series.
He credits Lois Bartlett Tracy, Alfred Morang and Mortimer Wilson, Jr. as being his most influential teachers.
Source:
Suzanne Deats, “The Life and Art of William Vincent”