Ethel Walker studied at Glasgow School of Art 1959-64. She taught before deciding to paint full time - her first solo exhibition was held in Edinburgh in 1972. During the last 40-45 years she has exhibited widely throughout the UK and also in USA and Hong Kong. She has gained a number of awards and her work is held in public, corporate and private collections in this country and abroad.
Ethel Walker (Mrs David Murray) lives and works in Argyll.
"Living on the West Coast of Scotland my inspiration mainly comes from the ever-changing skies and unexpected weather overlying and affecting ancient landforms. The light on the land can appear to change contours, solid can seem unsubstantial, and air, sea and stone merge into an interdependent whole.
I hope to encapsulate a visual instant - a sense of immediacy and imminent change but also a sense of enduring place."
Ethel Walker
2013
"What a joy to be introduced to the works of Ethel Walker. She is, quite simply, a real artist. Her pictures achieve what all good artists seek: to impress you with her technical ability but - much more importantly - to stir your emotions and take you to a different place, to show you the world as you have never seen it before. She is herself, as all good artists must be, not derivative or imitative. She paints what she sees and her skill as a painter is as sharp and developed as her eye is true."
John Humphreys, broadcaster
2007
"In Scotland, the speedy part of nature is the sky...daring the artist to grasp a visual instant before the light changes yet again... But I think that the critic who praised Ethel for 'weather paintings' underestimated her. She is aware that these are not just elemental but 'cultural' landscapes. This is the way Ethel Walker sees when she paints. Her strength is that she can comprehend these processes in a single, profoundly exciting work of art."
Neal Ascherson, journalist and author
2003
"The viewer feels Walker's closeness to nature, the wind on our faces, a hint of rain in the air conveyed with a real sense of intimacy.
Is it maybe because we see a continuity with the tradition of Scottish painting? Walker's vast skies remind me of McCulloch, McTaggart and Wingate who captured the drama and often violence of the Scottish landscape. Walker continues in this tradition and I find this link with the past strangely satisfying... Walker's landscapes have a sincerity and historical background which I find honest and inspiring. Is it maybe her ability to mix traditional subjects with a contemporary handling of paint? The handling of the paint is entirely modern. There is an understated elegance about many of the works... thin paint beautifully applied - masterpieces of understatement."
Julian Halsby, author 'Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present'
2010