Leelanau - The Road Less Traveled: A Painter / Photographer's View Of Leelanau County
Neil Walling Biography I began painting as a watercolorist. I graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California with a degree in industrial design. (I wanted to design cars!) While there though, I took several painting courses. In the mid 70’s Chrysler was having a tough time (so what’s new???) and I started painting. It was almost all watercolor and it was , to a large extent, scenes from areas around Michigan. In all, I did about 200 paintings and sold about the same number. After retiring in 1999, my wife and I moved to Bonita Springs and I started painting again. One of my goals was to learn how to paint in oils. Since my retirement I’ve done somewhere around 350 paintings. About half of them are oil and half are watercolor. Every painting I do is a new challenge. I learn something from each one. I am a firm believer in learning by doing. My goal is to create paintings that will have an impact on people. We should not just be recording the world around us. (A camera does a very good job of that) We should letting people see what we see in a way that is fresh to them.  To see my work go to www.neilwalling.com.