Walter Bachinski was born in 1939 in Ottawa. He worked closely with Frederick Hagan at the Ontario College of Art, graduating in 1965, and went on to complete his Master's Degree at the University of Iowa under the direction of Mauricio Lasansky in 1967. Shortly thereafter he began teaching at the University of Guelph, gaining tenure in 1970 and progressing through the ranks to Full Professor in 1984. At that time he began reducing his teaching, eventually leaving the University in 1994. 

Bachinski has traveled extensively throughout his career, at first studying the mural work of Orozco and Siquerios in Mexico and later the museums of Europe to see first hand the great works of the past. Eventually he focused on the masterpieces (particularly French) of the late 19th and early 20th century art housed in collections in France and the United States. 

The very early work was primarily black and white and concentrated on the areas of printmaking and drawing. He began working on sculpture in the round and relief in the early 1970s. In 1975 Bachinski introduced the Mother and Child theme and shortly thereafter the Artist and Model. His work continued to evolve, becoming more classical in style; his exploration of colour in pastels, leading to his re-examination of the possibilities of still life, began in 1978-79 during an extended stay in France. Since 1994, Walter Bachinski has devoted himself exclusively to his art in his studio in Shanty Bay, Ontario.