Because we know Bill Walmsley primarily as a printmaker, we often forget he began his career as a painter: but a painter he was! Child of the Depression era in America, Bill Walmsley managed a continental education: he attended the famous Paris school where so many young Americans had trained, the Académie Julian (1949-50), studying sculpture with Gimond and Yencesse and painting with Cavailles. He also sought art training at the Art Students League in New York (1951-52).