| Nell Gertrude Walker Warner was a painter, and teacher. her specialties were flowers and landscape. Warner was born near Falls City, Nebraska on April 1, 1891. Nell Walker graduated from the Lexington, MO Women's College in 1910. Following a brief teaching assignment in Colorado Springs, she moved to Los Angeles and studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, receiving a diploma in 1916. She then taught art classes at the Hollywood School for Girls and the Westlake School for Girls (1916-1918) and later did backgrounds for titles of silent motion pictures. 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; however, southern California remained her home. During the 1920s she was art curator of the Tuesday Afternoon Club and further studied locally with Nicolai Fechin, Fritz Werner, and Paul Lauritz in Los Angeles. Although divorced from her first husband, she continued to use his name professionally even after she married Emil Shorstrom in 1945. In 1952 they moved north to Carmel where she remained until her death on Nov. 30, 1970. Antony Anderson, art critic of the Los Angeles Times, stated that she was one of the ablest flower painters America has produced. Her work also includes landscapes of California and New England coast. |
