User:Tourvel190/Walter Desel

Walter J. Desel, Jr. (July 31, 1920-June 5, 2006) was a self-trained American painter. He was raised in Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens, and was graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1942 with a bachelors degree in economics. He initially moved to New York City and worked in the financial sector, during which time he held his first exhibition at the Washington Square Sidewalk Art Show in 1950. Desel served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II and in Korea, achieving the rank of Major. After the Marines, he traveled all over the world as a cruise director aboard passenger ships, visiting over 130 countries, until he retired in 1962 to pursue his dream of painting. He split his time between his two residences - June to September on Whalebone Walk in Ocean Ridge, Fire Island and October to May on Peacon Lane (he preferred its former name, Grunt Bone Alley) in Old Town, Key West. Desel painted in a variety of styles, usually employing vibrant colors, ranging from abstract works to realistic still lifes, landscapes and figure subjects. He was .also a water colorist. Of special note were his U.S. flag paintings, which he painted every year beginning in 1976, and his original diptychs painted on driftwood. His work was sold at the P.S. Gallery, The Woodenhead Gallery, The Red Doors Gallery and Flaming Maggie's Book Store in Key West and in the Ridge Gallery (his home) in Ocean Ridge. Desel was buried in Calverton National Cemetery. Desel's Fire Island friends and neighbors held a memorial service for him on August 19, 2006, in the Church of the Most Precious Blood in Ocean Ridge. Many of his paintings, water colors and diptychs were displayed, along with photographs from his more than four decades in the community.