biographie de Walter Inglis ANDERSON (1903-1965)

Birth place: New Orleans, LA

Addresses: Ocean Springs, MS

Profession: Designer, painter, decorator, ceramicist, sculptor

Studied: PAFA (Cresson Fellowship to study in Europe)

Work: the largest collection of his work is in the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS

Comments: In 1927, while studying in France, he became deeply impressed by the Paleolithic cave paintings at Les Eyzies. In 1929, he returned to Ocean Springs and worked as a pottery decorator for his brother"s Shearwater Pottery. In 1934, he painted murals for the Ocean Springs High School under the WPA. In 1940, after three years of hospitalization for mental illness, he and his wife and children moved to Oldfields, the family home in Gautier. There he produced most of his large linocut prints of epic voyages, folklore, and myths. In 1946, he returned to his small cottage on the Shearwater property, working in isolation, and making frequent trips to unspoiled Horn Island. In 1950-51, he was commissioned to paint murals for the Ocean Springs Community Center. His subjects often depict the flora and fauna of the Gulf Coast. In addition to the prehistoric caves of France, he was influenced by A. Best-Maugard"s book, A Method for Creative Design.