Bill Sharp was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Delaware. He studied painting and printmaking at the University of Delaware and The Maryland Institute College of Art, graduating with a BFA in painting.

After college Bill moved to New York where he apprenticed with hand made papermaker Douglas Morse Howell.

Moving to Portland in 1981, Bill showed mixed media and oil paintings in Portland, Sisters, Bend and Cannon Beach. A trip to western Ireland in 1996 inspired a series of oil paintings of the Irish landscape.

During a hiatus from exhibiting to run a small business, Bill began filling sketchbooks with ink and watercolor studies of Portland scenes. Over the last 5 years, Bill has returned to oil painting and has recently begun making still life paintings and urban landscapes, especially sites along Portland's riverfront.