Robert “Bob” Guy Walls (8 June 1927 – 11 November 1999) was a painter born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. After finishing his education at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

, Walls worked for the Union Steamship Company. He spent 17 years (1943 to 1960) employed by the shipping company, including 12 years at sea as a purser on ships trading mainly between New Zealand and Canada, and as shipping representative in Tonga and the Cook Islands. It was during this time that he began painting as a hobby. Walls arrived in London in 1960, and subsequently studied at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

(1960–1963). His first solo exhibition was in 1964 at the Drian Galleries in London. He painted full-time for many years, along with some lecturing and teaching. By the 1970s Walls was finally obliged to obtain employment to ease the insecurity of living off an artist’s income. He worked briefly at the Foreign Office, and then at the British Museum. Here, he worked as a curator until 1992 in the Prehistoric and Romano-British Departments, among other things being involved with arrangements for the famous

Lindow Man Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and (in jest) as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England. The remains were found on 1 August 1984 by commer ...

and in displaying the

Vindolanda Tablets The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern fr ...

, the earliest written materials yet found in Britain. Walls held many exhibitions in Europe, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and his works are in numerous collections both public and private, including those of the Contemporary Art Society and the New Zealand National Gallery.

Painting

Walls painted using various media, including oils, water colour and pastels, and gouache. His works are typically of land, sea and townscapes, the landscapes being mainly those of Yorkshire, Scotland, Spain and New Zealand.''New Zealand Women’s Weekly''. New Zealander holds second one-man-show. 28 March 1966, page 20

Personal life

Walls lived much of his adult life in London, with his partner John McLeod.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walls, Robert 1927 births 1999 deaths People from Upper Hutt New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century New Zealand painters 20th-century New Zealand male artists