Wallace W. Nall was a California native who was involved with horses most of his life. After service in the Army's First Cavalry during WWII, he studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, Calif. In addition to judging and showing, he founded the Los Altos Hunt in Woodside, Calif., and served as its first master.

In later years, he lived in New Jersey, riding to hounds there. In the early 1970s he moved to Middleburg, Va., where he painted commissioned portraits of dogs, horses, racing, foxhunting, steeplechase and other subects in the field sports.