Walter J. Phillips was born in Lincolnshire, England, and immigrated to Canada in 1913 at the age of 29, after spending considerable time studying abroad in South Africa and Paris. Today, he is considered one of the most accomplished watercolourist artists Canada has ever produced. In 1941, he became resident artist at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and played a vital role in the development of that institution's visual arts program.

Phillips's career spanned from the early 1900s through the late 1950s, when the increasing frailty of his eyesight caused him to stop painting. Phillips' work has been widely exhibited throughout North America and Great Britain. His topics ranged from the Canadian prairies to the Rocky Mountains. The work of Walter J. Phillips embodies local landscapes and human activities in those landscapes using a vocabulary forged in Japanese woodcut processes.Through the skillful superimposition of many layers of transparent water colours, he created images of great beauty, subtlety and depth - Willock Sax Gallery.This is the fourth volume in Lisa Christensen's highly acclaimed Hiker's Guide to Art of the Canadian Rockies series, which "takes the art off the wall and presents it in the context of the magnificent locations that inspired its creation"

Lisa Christensen
has worked in the art world for over thirty years, holding the positions of Associate Curator of Art at Calgary's Glenbow Museum and Curator of Art at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, in addition to doing freelance curatorial and corporate work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Art Gallery of Alberta. She has served on the Board of the Alberta Museums Association and is currently on the Art Advisory Council to Calgary's Military Museums and the Board of the Leighton Art Centre.

Lisa is a graduate of the University of Calgary and is the author of three books on Canadian art history: A Hiker's Guide to Art of the Canadian Rockies, A Hiker's Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris, and The Lake O?Hara Art of J.E.H. McDonald and Hiker's Guide.

This award-winning series of books takes a unique approach to art history, combining a trail-guide format with art history. A Hiker's Guide to Art of the Canadian Rockies won nine awards, including the inaugural W.O. Mitchell Book Prize.

Lisa is an accomplished public speaker, having lectured and presented on the subject of Canadian art at the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta and the University of Lethbridge, as well as the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Lisa Christensen's profile page

"Combining beautifully reproduced images of Walter J. Phillips artworks with an impressively informative and detailed commentary, Lisa Christensen's newest publication, Truth and Beauty in the Canadian Rockies: An Explorer's Guide to the Art of Walter J. Phillips will prove to be an extraordinary, welcomed and appreciated addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library 20th Century Canadian Art History collections."
— Midwest Book Review