MR. WALTER A. BOWRING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 8 (Supplement)

MR. WALTER A. BOWRING.

• ■ This young gentleman, who is not yet 30 years of age, having been born in 1874, may be looked on as a true colonial artist, since he was born and bred, trained and educated in the colony. As he says of himself, "My story is neither long nor interesting." Yet in the facts that it / discloses of native talent and perseverance, it is certainly the latter if not the former. From his childhood he seems to have always loved drawing, and to have found a means of expression in pencil and paper which was unknown to his more limited companions. ' Two or three school and class prizes, and a little "judicious encouragement from the headmaster of the Auckland College and Grammar School, who recognised the budding artist in the troublesome schoolboy, and young Walter began to take himself seriously, and turn his thoughts towards art as a profession. But the ' opportunities for steady study and training in the colonies are very few, and fewer still are the persons ' prepared to regard art as a worthy life aspiration ; and ' it is therefore not surprising that Mr Bowring's relatives, and perhaps he himself, thought that a little commercial training would test the strength of the ' young aspirant's vocation, and prove whether he had that perseverance which is as necessary in art as in any other life work. So he did a little " clerking," at . ' the same time studying with Messrs L. J. Steele and Kennett Watkins, who conducted a joint studio in the Victoria road. Here he gained a solid ground-work, and his mind was strengthened and confirmed in its natural bent, and in 1895, at the age of 18, when other boys are still at school or at college, he joined the staff of the Auckland Observer, as under-study to Mr W. Bloomfield, the well-known satirical cartoonist, and was soon afterwards engaged by the Christchurch Spectator as staff artist. In 1898 he resigned that position, but worked as contributor to that paper and ako the Weekly Press. In the following year he began the series of portraits, which have since become such a marked feature of a Christchurch weekly, and in consequence of the financial success which these brought to him, he was enabled to give up his contributions to the smaller paper, and devote his whole time and attention to the Press, joining the staff in 1901. Newspaper work, on whatever lines, is exacting, and as a newspaper artist we may well believe that Mr Bowring has very little spare time; still he does not limit himself to black and white, but devotes

every spare moment to painting : animals (of which he is passionately fond), claiming his chief attention ; and his presentment of dogs and horses have earned for him considerable appreciation and a few good commissions. Nor is Mr Bowling's artistic talent entirely confined to pen, ink, pencil, and paint. We hear of him now and again as an amateur actor and singer ; and in colonial parlance a good " all-round man," as much sought after in the social circle as in the studio.