Tai-Shan Schierenberg - Tapa blanda

William Packer was born in 1940, and educated at Windsor Grammar School and at Wimbledon School of Art, where he trained as painter. He taught for many years, but began to write about Art in 1969 and has been an art critic with the Financial Times since 1974. He has written several books, among them biographical studies of Henry Moore (1985) and of the Scottish painter, John Houston (2003). He was sole selector of the Arts Council’s very first British Art Show (1979), and has served on any number of juries and committees, including the Crafts Council and the Government Art Collection’s Advisory Committee. But he has always remained active as a painter, showing whenever possible, with his most recent solo show at the Piers Feetham Gallery in 2004. He is married, with three daughters and four grandchildren, and lives in Clapham.