1970s Clay Walker Painting, “Great Fatal Wave”

GREAT FATAL WAVE, mixed media, 1979 signed in pencil

Clay Walker (1924 – 2008)

Clay Walker was born in 1924 in Kentucky. His father was a sign painter and artist. Clay’s interest in art began at the age of three when he took his father’s paints and brushes and painted the barn door. During his school years he continued his art endeavors and education. While serving in the Army during World War II, he always had a sketchbook with him. In 1944, when he was sent to England to recuperate from a wartime wound, he met and married Muriel.

Upon his return to the states, he designed and built homes, while his artwork started to sell in galleries. His obsession to study art led him to attain a college degree with a major in painting and a minor in art history. Teaching art, at private schools and colleges, both in the US and internationally, became the next rewarding experience in his art career.

In 1955 the Walkers ventured back to England and then Paris, where Clay studied at the Ecole De Beaux Artes. It was during this time that he met Picasso; later he was part of an exhibition in Michigan with Picasso, Warhol and other notable artists.

Returning to the US in the early 1960’s, he became the director of the San Antonio Art Institute, Texas. In 1963 Clay moved to California, where he built a house with an art studio. It was here that he and Muriel continued their family while Clay was teaching art at several colleges. This was the beginning of his reclusive period.

In 1968 Clay moved his family to Escondido, where he designed and built his final house and studio. This house incorporated a huge sculpture in the pool area, influenced by Clay’s Seminole and Cherokee heritage. Art is present all over the house, from the enameled cabinet knobs to the huge paintings and mixed media prints that grace the walls. He remained reclusive, spending the majority of his time in the studio and with family, mixed in with an occasional game of golf.

Clay Walker died in March 2008