David Walker
Upstairs Art Gallery Artist

I began painting as a kid with 'paint by numbers' in the 50's. I loved to draw and was attracted to the Disney cartoonist, Roy Williams, and his characters. In grade school I did a drawing of Indians hunting Buffalo that caught some attention. I grew up in a remote area with a limited curriculum in high school, so my formal art education ceased.

Click on any image for more info on that specific art work.

I went to college at the University of Nebraska and majored in Art. My Drawing 101 instructor was out of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism but I was more interested in the vibrant painterly realism of Regionalist painters. The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery next to the art department was a curiosity, as in De Kooning's tortured series on Women. However, Thiebaud's luscious Pies and Cakes, was an inspiration.

My training in Art took another turn in 1968 when I was drafted and sent to the rice paddies of Vietnam. My interest in the visual world turned to photography at that point. There was a darkroom at battalion headquarters that I could use, when there was time.

After my military stint, I went back to the university and even though immersed in the desire to be an artist, I found the same old structure too stifling. Many hours in Art history, painting, printmaking and photography was again interrupted, this time by an urge to see fine art at a closer level. Travel to Europe took me to the Prado in Madrid, the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and my crowning achievement, tracking down and meeting the famous graphic artist, M.C. Escher in Baarn, Holland. The following year found me in Mexico inspired by the art history of the pre-Columbian period.

I settled down in Sonoma County in 1973 and again continued the study of Art at Sonoma State University where I earned a Bachelors degree. Painting through the years while holding a full time job, and rarely showing my work, I continued to widen my perspective while trying to narrow my style. A keen interest in color and its influence in producing a powerful or subtle light effect directs me. I have studied with various painters and share the community of painting with several groups around the area.

I paint on a regular basis, out-of-doors, always pushing myself to catch the fleeting effects of light.

My work can be seen at the Upstairs Art Gallery, 306 Center Street, Healdsburg, California.

Contact information for David Walker:
davey6681@sbcglobal.net