William Barstow was born in Vermont and came to Alaska with his family in 1976 when he was 10 years old. A sometimes carpenter and commercial fisherman who currently makes his home in Talkeetna, Barstow is a former Junior Olympic skier, mountain climber, and river guide. In 1988 he received a B.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College and in 1995 he completed an M.F.A in painting at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Inspired early on by his artistic grandmother, Barstow paints in a variety of media on an equally varied choice of surfaces and focuses largely on landscape.