Frances Baker – Artist’s Statement
I paint exclusively in watercolor because no other medium captures the beauty and delicacy of my subjects with the same sparkling results. The transparency of watercolor makes the color sing and reminds me of stained glass. Watercolor does not generally stay where you put it, and if allowed, it will paint itself with surprising results. My goal is to stimulate the senses of my viewer by articulating an image that celebrates life. It has been said that a painting begets a painting, and I aspire to a continual evolution in my work. Art is a journey in and of itself.
I begin each piece with a review of reference material. It may be a photograph or sketch and may be of someplace special or just an interesting perspective of an ordinary object. Then I decide if the piece will be representational or abstract. Once that decision is made, I begin to design the major shapes as a small sketch. I then evaluate the project according to design principles. I find that by making these major decisions at the beginning I am much more likely create a painting that speaks to me and to my viewers. I don’t know exactly when I evolved from merely painting images to striving to paint emotion, but somewhere along the way that motive became essential to my work.
I learned to paint by carefully glazing one color over another, but now find that I prefer to charge strong colors wet into wet, or better yet, to pour the paint onto a wet surface and let the colors fuse. Allowing the colors to mix on the paper results in a more dynamic painting. The effect can be achieved in no other way. The process is of itself exciting and spontaneous, and leads me in new and exciting directions. The process of watercolor painting is unpredictable, but it is that very characteristic that keeps me excited and keeps me painting. Perhaps it’s those “happy accidents” that remind me that life is often like a watercolor.
Frances Baker – Artist’s Bio
Frances Baker was born and raised in North Carolina, but spent several years in Virginia before retiring and returning to the Greensboro, NC area. She graduated from UNC-G with a double major in accounting and sociology and received her Masters of Accounting from UNC – CH the following year. After 20 years as a CPA and executive, she retired to devote full time to her art and art related endeavors.
When an opportunity to take a beginning watercolor class presented itself in the late 1990s, she took up a hobby that would become a passion. Although she has no formal art education, she has spent the last 10 years in independent study as well as taking classes from local watercolor instructors in Richmond, VA and Greensboro, NC. She has also taken workshops with Birget O’Connor and Cheng Ke Chee.
Her work was accepted into the Watercolor Society of North Carolina’s 62nd Annual Juried Exhibition in 2007. Her work has also been exhibited in various regional shows including Ambleside Gallery in 2008.
She joined the Board of Directors for the Watercolor Society of NC in 2007 as Central Region Director and accepted the position of Treasurer in 2008. She is a founding member, Business Manager and Treasurer of Yew Tree Gallery.