Roy Walker
Painting
Roy Walker made a huge contribution to the arts in Cornwall and St Ives in particular, where he achieved an impressive reputation as an artist, etcher and printmaker. His love of form, colour and light are recurring themes that can clearly be seen in the shapes that constantly appear throughout his work. His later work began to exceed the confines of his studio as he worked on a larger and larger scale, and he was constantly searching for alternative ways to express himself and continually experimented with different mediums and styles.
CV
Roy was born in 1936 in Welling, Kent. He studied art at the Gravesend School of Art and the Regent Street Polytechnic,and also attended evening classes at the Bournemouth College of Art, and later, after National Service in the RAF, at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London. During the 1960’s he worked on the assembly lines at Ford’s in Dagenham, which heavily influenced his ‘mechanical iconography’ of later years. He moved to St. Ives with his family in 1965, where his artistic career began in earnest. He was allocated one of the prestigious Porthmeor Studios in 1971 and eventually occupied No 3 studio from 1982 until his death in 2001.
His memberships included the Penwith Society of Arts, Newlyn Society of Artists, Plymouth Society of Artists and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers & Engravers. He served as Chairman of the Penwith Society of Arts and became Director of the Penwith Print Workshop, where he developed new printing techniques, including the use of steel etching plates. He was a founder member of the Porthmeor Printmakers. He also received a major award from the South West Arts.
Roy Walker died in 2001 aged 65.
