Franklin Fine Art

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The Luminist tradition, embodying the qualities of atmosphere and light, often informs the work of marine painters on
Narragansett Bay. Walter Scotts thirty years of experience as a shell fisherman on the bay infuses his work with a deep knowledge of this ever changing and challenging environment.

A life long resident of Rhode Island, Walter spent his adolescent years fishing and boating with the working fishermen. His passion for marine art began at an early age while fishing off the Rhode Island coast, he was inspired to draw and paint the brigantine Black Pearl. Family and friends were very impressed with his rendering and encouraged him to pursue the arts.

Primarily a self-taught artist, his only formal training consisted of high school art classes where he learned the basics of drawing and painting. Through the years he experimented with different mediums finally choosing oils for their luminous effects. He was impressed by the works of many marine masters especially, Montague Dawson and Fitz H Lane for the realism they brought to their paintings and the way they used light and atmosphere to bring their paintings to life. Walter creates his paintings both Plein-Air and in the studio. He enjoys the challenge of capturing the light and atmosphere when painting from nature. Not surprising, many of his nautical oil paintings depict the RI and New England coast including landscapes and seascapes.

Although Walter worked as a full time shell fisherman for thirty years, he devoted much of his free time to his art and in 1999 he began to show his paintings in Rhode Island, Maine and Cape Cod galleries as well as selected outdoor shows. Because of his success in these venues he partnered with fellow artists and opened a gallery in the seaside village of Wickford, RI and Newport, RI. In 2008 he formed his own art gallery, Mariner Fine Art in Newport RI.

Walter's paintings are in many private collections in the US and abroad. He has won several awards and has had work accepted into the Mystic Marine International juried exhibition show.