Steven S. Walker, Streaming at Dusk, oil, 12 x 24.
It was not an inspiring scene that initially prompted Steven S. Walker to paint his winning entry, but rather, an invitation. His buddy Dan was organizing an art show for an Airstream convention in Jackson Center, OH, where the iconic aluminum trailers are manufactured. Walker had participated in the art show once before, and he was happy to contribute a piece again. When it comes to subject matter, “I like to mix it up,” says the artist, who portrays everything from still lifes to landscapes en plein air.
So, one evening at dusk, Walker headed to an RV park near his home in southern Georgia and soon found his perfect subject: an Airstream parked in a patch of grass, its silver shell aglow in lamplight. Walker did a few quick sketches, snapped some photos, and left. Time passed. “I knew I had to paint it, but I kept putting it off,” the artist confesses. The right time eventually came, however, when Walker was teaching an art class in northern Virginia. “I decided to make this [Airstream] a demo,” he says. “An hour and some change later, it was done.”
Of course, Walker will be the first to tell you that most days, painting is hard work. “Day in, day out, I don’t worry about whether I feel inspired,” notes the artist, who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and his master’s degree from Marywood University. “I just keep going. I don’t quit.”
Find Walker’s work at B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY; Sharon Weiss Gallery, Columbus, OH; Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa, OK; Howard/Mandville Gallery, Woodinville, WA; Hagan Fine Art, Charleston, SC; Calloway Fine Art, Washington, DC; Two Sisters Gallery, Columbus, GA; and Vision Art Gallery, Morehead City, NC.
This story appeared in the December 2020/January 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.