Biographical
Steven Walker was born in Brooklyn in 1955, and grew up in West Islip, Long Island, from 1958. In the summer following high school he first visited art museums in New York and felt an affinity with many styles of art. He took drawing and design classes at Wagner College, Staten Island, NY. He was encouraged to major in art; but lacked the confidence to do so. He worked on his own in drawing, pastel, and acrylic, until age 28, when he enrolled full time at the Art Students League of New York. He studied figure drawing with Gregory d’Alessio, Gustav Rehberger, Michael Burban, Anthony Palumbo, Jack Faragasso, and others, and often sketched people outdoors and on the subway. From 1989-91 he studied still life painting with Richard Goetz and served as his monitor. Goetz stressed composition, drawing, and direct observation of color relationships based on Impressionism. Walker first painted outdoors in a Goetz workshop in Mount Kisco, NY, and this soon became his favorite working method. In 1994 he began to study printmaking under Michael Pellettieri at the League, a relationship that continues to this day. From 1998-2000 he attended Hunter College, NY, where he studied painting with Emily Mason. In 2000 he attended a landscape workshop with Wolf Kahn in Maine.
Walker began selling his work at outdoor art festivals in 1991, and has exhibited in numerous venues in the United States and worldwide. He is represented by The Old Print Shop in New York, serves on the council of the Society of American Graphic Artists, and has served as a director of the New York Society of Etchers. Since 2003 he has been an adjunct instructor of art at Wagner College. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art.