Edwin Welsh

                                                                            Edwin Hamilton Welsh

      Edwin Welsh was born in Philadelphia, December 25,1890.  After three years of high school, he studied structural engineering by correspondence. He was employed by several firms as an engineering draftsman until 1932 when he was forced to retire because of ill health.   Although Welsh never had any art schooling, he purchased several art books and taught himself from these and began to paint about 1933.  His first attempts were watercolors, difficult enough in itself, and they reflect his earlier training as a draftsman. They are very precise, accurate in perspective, almost like engineering drafts with color added.  Later he gave way to his more natural freedom and agility with color.  Abandoning his tight concept of painting, he painted boldly on pieces of textured wallpaper, old cardboard or anything handy.His works are strangely decorative and they seem to depict everyday life as one might portray a fantasy.  The subtle colors and carefully crafted constructions could lead one to conclude these works are those of an exceptional designer rather than a gifted self-taught artist relating his life and times.

      Welsh continued to produce his fine paintings until 1972 when worsening health forced him into a retirement home shortly before he died. Welsh was sought by folk art collectors and was included in the “Strauser Group”.  He was included in a number of important collections and museum exhibitions like the William Penn Memorial Museum where he was included
with Savitsky, McCarthy and Contis.