Orville C. Bulman, 1904-1978, was the son of E.O. (Elvah Orville) Bulman and Margaret Agnes Young Bulman of Grand Rapids, Michigan. E.O. Bulman invented a twine holder and dispenser which started the family business, the E.O. Bulman Manufacturing Co., and built the family fortune. Orville's native skills as an artist developed early. Those looking for his work might seek examples in school publications such as the Helios (1924), for those years when Orville attended Grand Rapids Central High School. He worked for one year after graduation as a cartoonist for a Chicago newspaper. But, the pressure to join the family business was too great, and Orville postponed his active work as an artist until the late 1930s, at which time he began to more actively exhibit his work in shows throughout the country. Largely self-taught, he supplemented his art education by taking short courses at such places as the Chicago Art Institute summer art school at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, or the Norton Art Gallery in West Palm Beach studying with Eric Lundgren.

Bulman married Jean Cleland, also a Grand Rapids resident, in the early 1930s. The couple had no children. They established winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida beginning around 1946, though maintaining their Plymouth Ave. House until around 1974. Bulman continued to be an active leader of the Grand Rapids business, becoming President in 1954. It appears the move to Palm Beach gave Bulman more freedom to concentrate on his paintings. Many of his paintings use Southern and tropical settings, and exotic lands such as Haiti as a backdrop. His work is colorful, and has been described as “whimsical fantasy.” In the 1950s he received notice in Newsweek Magazine and Life Magazine. Among the collectors of Bulman's work in the 1950s and 1960s were the Duchess of Windsor, Henry Fonda, Greer Garson, Joan Fontaine and Robert F. Kennedy.

Bulman remained President of the Bulman Co. until 1975, even after it was sold to Rospatch Corporation around 1971. By the time he retired, he already had some 40 one-man exhibits and 2,000 paintings sold. Orville Bulman passed away in January 1978; Jean Bulman lived on until September 1993.