Arthur W. Palmer, painter, printmaker, teacher and cartoonist, was born in Chicago, Illinois on 27 November 1913 to Arthur Willis and Gertrude Palmer. Arthur Willis Palmer, Sr. died in June 1917 and his widow and young son moved west to Southern California where Arthur W. Palmer, Jr. attended Joseph Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood, California in 1927. He later studied with Frank Tolles Chamberlin at the Chouinard Art Institute.

Palmer married Elizabeth A. Briggs in December 1937 and in 1940 they were living in Glendale, California. He worked for Walt Disney Productions as a supervisor and effect animator between 1935 and 1941. His career was interrupted by his induction into the military during World War II. By 1950, Palmer was living in Northern California in the city of Novato and he is listed on the census as a portrait painter with two daughters, wife, and mother living together. He taught at the California College of Arts & Crafts between 1952 and 1953 and also taught at the Palo Alto Art Club.

Palmer was a member of and exhibited with the Marin Society of Artists, the Society of Western Artists, the Pasadena Society of Artists, and the Bohemian Club, San Francisco. He exhibition at the San Diego Fine Art Society in 1934, the Los Angeles Art Association in 1934, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts in 1933 through 1936, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1935, the Painters and Sculptors of Los Angeles between 1935 and 1937, the Pasadena Society of Artists in 1938, and the American Watercolor Society and the Oakland Art Gallery in 1944.

Arthur Willis Palmer, Jr. died in Woodacre, California on 7 July 1982.