1. Adolfo Best-Maugard’s Method in the Art of Walter Anderson
Self-Portrait
Adolpho Best-Maugard, 1922
oil on canvas

2. Best-Maugard’s seven basic motifs shaped the art of
The concept of Adolfo
Best-Maugard’s seven basic motifs shaped the art of
Walter Anderson.
Here are some of Anderson’s sketches he made while learning the strategies in Best-Maugard’s Method of Creative Design.
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi

4. How many line motifs can you find in this Walter Anderson drawing?
Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum

5. Detail pages from:
A Method for Creative Design by Adolfo Best-Maugard
Dover Publications, 1990
Used with Permission

6. Ocean Springs Community Center.
Walter Anderson applied the strategies for combining the seven motifs from Best-Maugard in his murals that decorate the
Ocean Springs Community Center.
From Preservation in Mississippi
Ocean Springs Community Center ( ) [National Register] Finished in1948 of concrete block and in the Colonial Revival style, the Ocean Springs Community Center is significant more for its interior than for its unassuming exterior. Soon after its completion, from , local artist Walter Anderson covered almost every space of the walls, including baseboards, trim, and electrical outlets, with a fantastical mural depicting the “seven seasons” of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, in his own famously distinctive style. Anderson’s style was not generally appreciated at the time, and he actually left the mural unfinished because of criticism. He was paid $1.00 for the work, which is now valued in the millions.
In 1991, the Walter Anderson Museum building was constructed next door and connected with the Community Center, which now stands as his most monumental and significant work.

14. Artworks included in this instructional resource
are for an educational non-commercial purpose and have been used
with permission granted to Montgomery County Public Schools by:
The Family of Walter Inglis Anderson:
Mary, Bill, Leif and John
and the cooperation of:
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi
For more about the art of Walter Anderson, visit: