American painter, John Seibels Walker, was born in South Carolina in

1960. He received a B.A. in Studio Arts from The University of the South in

1983 and spent several years as a 19th – early 20th century art dealer before going

on to train in the Classical Realist atelier of Richard Lack in Minneapolis,

Minnesota. There he completed four years of apprentice study in 1991.

This training provided a unique opportunity to become part of one of the

world’s longest and most important artistic traditions – an academic approach to

observing and rendering nature accurately and to crafting paintings using the

techniques of the Old Masters.

After working with Lack, Walker moved to Florence, Italy to intensely

study Italian and European masterpieces and to teach drawing and painting at

Charles H. Cecil Studios. Several important commissions in Britain followed

before his return to America to pursue his natural predisposition for portraiture.

Richard Lack has noted: “His special gift for portraiture was revealed even in

his initial studies in oil from the model. In his last year his portraits took on a

professional quality, and he painted some of the best heads that I have seen

among my students. His striking gift for portraiture will, I predict, make him

one of the finest American portrait painters in the forthcoming century… John

will produce work of enduring merit and will be one of the best trained painters

of his generation.”

His focus on the art of portraiture has continued, and he is now regarded as

one of America’s premier painters of portraiture in the Grand Manner with works

in numerous American, British and European collections. An ongoing love and

appreciation of Italian art, culture, and landscape has led the artist to continue to

work, study, and teach part of every year at his studio in Lucca, Italy. When in

America, he lives and works out of his loft/studio in downtown Charlotte, North

Carolina.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.