Walter Ferguson


Walter William Ferguson was born in New York City in 1930. He received his formal art training under scholarship at Yale School of Fine Arts and Pratt Institute. He has exhibited widely in Israel and abroad and his paintings are in many private collections.
Ferguson is a 1948 graduate of Midwood High School, and is known to have painted at least two murals at the school while he was a student. Both murals still exist in their original locations as of January 2016.
Noted for his versatility, Ferguson paints a wide variety of subjects from wildlife to portraits and landscapes. His classical technique combined with modern design have been developed over 60 years and honed to a high degree of sensitivity.
In addition to his fine art, Ferguson has produced limited editions of serigraphs and litho-offsets prints. He has written and illustrated seven books and illustrated 26 books and many articles. He was commissioned by LIFE magazine to illustrate endangered species. Ferguson wrote and illustrated a book on The Mammals of Israel. His paintings have helped raise funds to reintroduce into Israel animals that became extinct since Biblical times.
Ferguson has worked for the American Museum of Natural History where he did paintings reconstructing extinct animals. He moved to Israel in 1965, where he briefly taught art at Bezalel School of Art. He has been staff artist for the Department of Zoology of the Tel Aviv University for 29 years. In addition to his fine art, Ferguson has contributed to zoology and paleoanthropology.
Ferguson died on December 18, 2015.