Wes(ley) Walters (1928-2014) was an Australian artiste and winner of the Archibald Prize. Walters was born in Mildura, Victoria, in 1928. He was a realist portrait painter and abstract artiste who painted approximately 200 portraits of leading Australians, especially academics, businessmen, artists, and musicians. He was awarded the Minnie Crouch Prize in 1953 and 1956. He won the 1979 Archibald prize in 1980 later a portrait of Phillip Adams. He was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 1988 and 1990. He painted a 1.3 metre high, 1 metre broad portrait of the Central Queensland University’s Chancellor, Justice Stan Jones. In 1998 he painted Donald Bradman. Walters died on 19 August 2014. Although Walters had been painting in a non-figurative style back the in advance 1960s, he did not Keep his first exhibition of abstract works until 2001. He was elected to the Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1993.
In 2009 the book ‘Walters: art of realism & abstraction’ by David Thomas was published.
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