Inspired as a boy by paintings of his great grandfather, the nineteenth century American painter Ralph Albert Blakelock, Walter Wilson was drawing and painting throughout his youth. His first commission for a large painting was of a New England church in 1943 for a New York City interior designer. Wilson says that he has been "project oriented" ever since.
Walter Wilson's studio has been in Tubac since 1988. Prior to that he was in Colorado Springs for thirty-two years, where Wilson headed the Art Department at Fountain Valley School.
Born in 1929, Wilson graduated with honors in Fine Arts from Colgate
University in 1951. He married his wife Patty in 1952, when he became an
Air Force pilot. He flew C-46 Troop Carrier aircraft in the Korean War
and painted Air Force murals, portraits of generals, and character
studies of local people after the war while stationed in Japan. View
these
here.
The Wilsons settled in Colorado Springs in 1956 and raised six
children. He earned a Masters Degree in Art at Colorado College in 1964.
Besides teaching Art, Wilson specialized in portrait painting,
landscapes, stage and scenic design, and custom artwork for
corporations. He is represented in over 300 collections and his work has
been in numerous museum exhibitions, one-man shows, and has received
Best of Show awards and other honors.
As an artist and business man, he founded LEASE ART COMPANY in Colorado Springs in 1976, THE ART BANK & ORIENTAL RUG CENTER in Colorado Springs in 1980, and TUBAC OLD WORLD IMPORTS and THE WALTER WILSON ART GALLERY in Tubac in 1988.
His sons, Richard and Blake, now own the business in Colorado Springs,
and son Lincoln now owns the one in Tubac. Walter Wilson recently built
the TUBAC OFFICE PLAZA and opened his PORTRAIT STUDIO and the TUBAC ART
EXCHANGE there in 2002.
Click
here
to view available works by Walter Blakelock Wilson
in 1948
in 1955
Springs in 1973