Nell Gertrude Walker Warner

American/California (1891-1970)

Biography

Nell Walker was born in Richardson County, NE. on April 1, 1891.  She was educated in Colorado Springs and graduated from the Lexington (MO) College in 1910.  She then moved to California and graduated from the Los Angeles School of Art & Design in 1916.  After her marriage to Dr. Bion S. Warner in 1920, she traveled in Europe and spent three summers in Cape Ann (MA) where she painted many harbor scenes in Gloucester and Rockport.; however, La Canada, CA. remained her home.

During the 1920s she was art curator of the Tuesday Afternoon Club (LA) and further studied locally with Nicholai Fechin (1881-1955),  F. Werner (1923-25), and Paul Lauritz (1889-1975).  In 1945 she married Emil Shostrom and, five years later, moved north to Carmel where she remained until her death on November 30, 1970.  Her specialty was floral still lifes; however, she also painted landscapes and scenes of the New England coast.

Member : California Art Club; Glendale Art Association; Women Painters of the West (President); California Watercolor Society; Laguna Beach Art Association; Artland Club; Academy of Western Painters, Los Angeles; Pasadena Society of Artists; Society of Western Painters; Carmel Art Association.

Exhibited : California Eisteddfod, 1925 (4 gold & silver medals); Southern California Fair, 1925 (first prize); Wilshire Gallery, Los Angeles, 1928; Phoenix, 1929 (prize); Texas State Exhibition, 1929 (prize); Sacramento State Exhibition, 1929 (third prize); Santa Cruz Ann., 1930 (prize); California State Ann., 1931 (first prize); Ebell Club (prizes); Los Angeles Museum of Art, 1933 (prize); Beverly Hills, CA, 1933 (prize); California At Club, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1936 (honorable mention); GGIE, 1940; Society for Sanity in Art, CPLH, 1945.