STORY AND MISSION

In the 1950s, Kenneth Bonar Walsh Jr. (1922-1980) came to Montauk from New York City to paint seascapes, catch fish, sing of Nature's beauty, put down roots, and, later, develop a style of painting all his own.

The Boston native moved to New York, after attending the School of Practical Art on the G.I. Bill, where he began his career in the art department of Lever Brothers. But he had bigger dreams, and soon established the Bonart Studio, a commercial art business. RCA Records, the Ideal and Transogram toy companies, and the Schrafft’s candy and chocolate company were among the studio’s clients.

The business a success, he began to take vacations. He liked Montauk so much that he built a house in Hither Hills and established the Bonart Gallery, initially at Gosman’s Dock. Here, he painted the South Fork’s natural beauty, often depicting seascapes, boats, and fishermen, mostly in watercolor but also in oil paintings, sculptures, and collages. Later, in the 1970s, he developed a strikingly different, modernist style.

Years after his passing, Christopher Walsh, the fourth of the artist's five children, began a search for his father's work, compiling, restoring, and documenting as much as he could find.

This website is the product of that compilation and serves as both a catalog of Kenneth B. Walsh's life work and an online store offering select reproductions of his work. ​We hope that Montauk and the world will rediscover this artist's unique vision of people, mythology, and the beautiful East End.