“To some black artists, wildlife art is foreign, but to me it’s home,” said Walker, who has painted scenes of Florida’s animals and ocean creatures for much of his life. Born in 1946 in Fort Pierce, he attended Lincoln Park Academy and had an interest in art from an early age. His father used to take him hunting for turkey and deer in the backwoods around Fort Pierce, an inspiration for his large-scale paintings.


Walker did not participate in any of the Highwaymen activities and considers himself only very loosely affiliated with the group, although his wife, Gertrude Walker, was the sister of Livingston (Castro) Roberts (she is also the Superintendent of Elections in Fort Pierce and an artist in her own right). He has pursued an artistic career throughout his life and was considered an outstanding wildlife artist in the 1980s, at least a decade before the Highwaymen were rediscovered.