Walter Phillips was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1884. Trained at the Birmingham School of Art, he was a successful watercolour artist in England before he and his wife, Gladys, emigrated to Winnipeg in 1913. In 1940, Phillips was asked to be artist in residence at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He moved to Calgary in 1941 where he taught at the provincial Institute of Technology and Art.
Although watercolour remained his primary medium, the wood block print was an enduring interest which brought his work to a wider audience. Among his best-known and loved images in watercolour and woodblock print are those which depict family holidays on Lake of the Woods from the teens until 1925.
Walter J. Phillips died in 1963, leaving a legacy of uniquely Canadian art. He is recognized today as a master of the watercolor and the woodblock print medium and his work is eagerly collected. His works are housed in galleries across Canada, including The National Gallery of Canada, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and The Glenbow Museum as well as collections abroad in London, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Japan, and private collections internationally.
The Glenbow owes its extraordinary Phillips collection of some 1000 works to the vision of Glenbow founder Eric Harvie who bought directly from the artist over a period of years, culminating in the remarkable purchase of 1960. That year Glenbow acquired the bulk of its massive Phillips collection and the entire contents of his Banff studio, his library and private papers (including books, journals, photographs, exhibition catalogues), illustrated books, and his personal collection of art. Glenbow's Phillips collection is the best in Canada with 175 original print blocks (including a large number of complete colour sets), 69 sketchbooks, 87 drawings, 40 watercolours, and 318 prints. Another significant private collection of work by Phillips was gifted to the city of Winnipeg. Permanently housed in the Pavilion Gallery Museum in Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park, the Crabb collection is available for public viewing year round.
Born on October 25, 1884 in Barton-on-Humber, UK. Died on July 5, 1963. Nationality is British, Canadian
