(Born in 1935 in Ryhope, U.K., E. Colin Williams has worked in all media and is an accomplished printmaker, but most frequently paints with oils and in a representational manner. From his earliest years, E. Colin Williams never saw himself as separate from the landscape that contained him. Some of his earliest sketches were like simple topographical maps, others were drawings of the world around him - the pit heap in Ryhope, the docks at Sunderland, the rugged coastline and the North Sea. As a child he drew obsessively: the streets of the village, the sea, the coast, the farms, fields, roadways, and rocky outcroppings of the County Durham of his childhood. By the time he was fifteen, there was no doubt he could ever be anything other than an artist.

Between 1952 and 1961 (with the exception of two years of compulsory military service), Williams studied art at the Sunderland College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London on full scholarships, graduating with a degree in Painting in 1961 and receiving the designation of ARCA (Associate of the Royal College of Art).

In 1962 Williams moved to Australia where he taught at the National Art School in Sydney from 1962-1969. During his time in Australia, the artist won thirty juried art prizes (including the prestigious Mosman Art Prize) until he was asked to stop entering the competitions and serve as a judge himself. Williams also exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and one-man shows including at the Darlinghurst Gallery, Dennis Gittoes Studio, Dominion Art Gallery, and the National Art School.

In 1969 Williams was invited to become the first Artist-in-Residence at the Banff School of Fine Art (now the Banff Centre). Exhibitions soon followed in Banff, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Williams' intimate depictions of the Canadian landscape soon found homes in some of Canada's most well-respected public (the National War Museum, the Lord Beaverbrook Gallery), corporate (Sony Canada, IBM Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada), and private collections.

In 1974, Williams was selected to participate in the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artist Program. This trip resulted in a one-man show at the Currie Barracks near Calgary that featured sketches and oils recording the day-to-day work of Canadian forces in the Middle East.Between 1975 and 1988, Williams exhibited widely in the USA and Canada with works being selected for inclusion in exhibitions as diverse as the National Oil Industry Art Exhibit at the Mitchell Museum in Mount Vernon, Illinois and various galleries across Canada. Paintings were selected for reproduction by organizations like the Calgary Flames, the Canadian Olympic Committee (limited edition commemorative lithograph of Mount Allen), and the Royal Trust.