Willard Bond
Artist

Willard Bond was born in the Pacific Northwest in 1926 and grew up on Lake Couer d'Alene in Northern Idaho. After spending two years in the United States Forest Service, Bond joined the United States Navy. He acquired experience on battleships, cruisers and destroyer escorts while serving in the South Pacific during World War II.

After spending five years experimenting with geodesic construction in conjunction with the Peace Corps and USAID, he moved to New York in 1976. Here he began painting marine scenes and nudes. As he continued to explore sailing and the sea, Bond was moved to painting contemporary racing scenes.

Bond and his wife, Lois, bought a 33-foot skipjack rebuilt by Richard Fewtrell and sailed her out of Three Mile Harbor at the eastern end of Long Island. He was fortunate to get involved with the Freedom Syndicate during the 1984 America's Cup series and was invited to straphang on "Freedom" in a warm up tracking duel with "Liberty" before the last Liberty-Courageous race.

Bond studied at the Chicago Art Institute, the Art Students League of New York and is a graduate of Pratt Institute Art School. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists and was also featured in an article in the Summer 1980 edition of Sea History and the Winter 1982 edition of Nautical Quarterly.