Tree, Pasture, Mary Baker © 2014, Digital Image
One of the “new” images. “Tree, Pasture,” Mary Baker © 2014, integrated art image.
“The Pasture” Oil on Paper, 5.5″ x 22″ 2007 © Mary Baker (Sold)
“The Pasture”
Oil on Paper, 5.5″ x 22″
2007 © Mary Baker
(Sold)
Same tree, same pasture, different medium.
My son, Hal Fickett, who is a marketing and social media guru, with clients like best selling New York Times author Frank Schaeffer, is helping me to articulate why I’m so driven to try this new medium over traditional painting.
Hal Fickett, Mary Baker © 2013
This is a digital image of Hal. Hal Fickett’s marketing website can be found here at halfickett.com.
Spring, Plum Island Turnpike, Mary Baker © 2014
A recent digital art image.
Spring, Plum Island Turnpike, Mary Baker © 2014
The new digital images can be found on Facebook here.
Hal-Florida on his mind, Mary Baker © 2013
For the last year I’ve been woking on new digital images. The process is still in its experimental stages. This is a digital art image finished in late December 2013. The new digital images can be found on Facebook here.
Pathway at Maudslay
Oil on Canvas, 36″ x 48″ 2011
Mary Baker © 2011
I’ve been working on this realistic landscape painting since 2004. I finished the painting a few weeks ago. It’s part of a trilogy, and this is the last painting to be finished. It’s found a great home (which means it’s sold). The painting is of Mauslay State Park in Newburyport, Massachusetts in the spring.
Mary Baker–Paintings
October 31-December 31, 2009
Art show of Mary Baker’s paintings
Presented by Kerim Kaya
Kaya
41 State Street,
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-465-1330
Opening Reception:
Saturday, November 8, 2009
6 PM-9 PM
(Apple Blossoms and Wall © Mary Baker, Oil on Canvas, 24″ x 36″)
“A contemporary realist painter, she captures, with lifelike precision, the stillness of the Plum Island marshes, the petals of a bright yellow iris in the South End, apple blossoms clinging to a brick wall at the old gardens at Maudslay State Park and the Common Pasture, its vista unchanged by centuries.”
“Putting things in perspective,” by Ulrika G. Gerth, © The Newburyport Current, November 6, 2009
I have discovered that the simple North Eastern Day Lily is a survivor. I discovered this working in my garden in Newburyport, Massachusetts. I decided to dig up a bunch of orange summer day Lilies in my Newburyport garden and replace them with some other perennials. I threw the roots into my compost heap, thinking that they would compost nicely. Shortly, I had little shoots coming up through my compost pile. I then cleaned up the roots, and left them to dry on the side of my compost pile, thinking that they would surely die. Nope, I now have a whole row of daylilies sprouting up, their roots exposed, lying on top of the dirt. Nothing in the wide, wide world to help nourish them or help them grow.
I’ve ripped them out of their perennial home, torn them apart, buried them under a pile of stuff, left them lying open to the elements, and still they grow. Now I know why I like the “common” orange daylily so much. They are unbelievable survivors and thrive under the most trying of circumstances. A good example for any artist. And a good subject for a realistic flower painting.
Orange Day Lily and Blue, Oil on panel
Mary Baker © 2009, 8″x10″
The “Red Rose” depicted in this art blog post, is part of a series of realistic flower paintings that I started in 2006. I ran a couple of finished paintings of this series past a gallery director, who shrugged, and I lost confidence in the series (which was sort of silly of me). I decided to work on them again, and “Red Rose” is the first art painting of this flower series that is finished.
The rose is one of the many beautiful flowers in the gardens of the small New England seaport city where I live, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Instead of putting the rose in context with the rest of the garden, I decided to make the background a little different. And this is a very different color palette than what I am used to using, and I’ve never painted a “glowing” flower before. So this is a first.
One of the things that the patrons who have bought my realistic landscape paintings over the years have said, is that they have always love the detail involved in the art paintings. So on this painting of the “Red Rose,” I decided to make the rose itself more detailed than I might normally would have painted, and make the background equally detailed. I’m excited, I really love this realistic flower painting of the red rose.
(Red Rose, Oil on Panel, 8″x10″, Mary Baker (c) 2009)
In 2005, 2006 and 2007 I started a series of realistic flower paintings with textured backgrounds, which I love. I ran them past a gallery owner, who shrugged (this happens sometimes) and I gave up on them (which was sort of silly of me). I have a series of these textured background, realistic flower paintings, almost finished, sitting around my studio. So I’ve decided to work on them again. They actually are some of my favorite paintings, and ones that I love to have around my own house.
The Yellow Lilly in this post is oil on panel and 8″x10″, it was painted in 2006, and I’ve never put it anywhere on either my art website or my artist blog, so I thought it was about time to post a picture of the painting. Hopefully, I will put up more of the realistic flower paintings with textured backgrounds as they now get painted.
The textured realistic flower paintings are quite a contrast to the moody landscapes that I have also been working on. Two of these landscapes are in the two previous posts.
(Yellow Lilly, Oil on Panel, 8″x10″, 2006 (c) Mary Baker)
Field 2
Oil on Canvas, “20 x 30”
Mary Baker © 2009
Another one of the new Newburyport realistic 2009 landscape paintings by Mary Baker.
Field 2–A visible light on the horizon that the winding pathway is leading to. A moody landscape painting that reflects feelings about the challenging economic times that we are living in. Fear, despair and hope in the future.
Field 1
Oil on Cavas, 12″ x 24″
Mary Baker © 2009
A new realistic landscape painting.
In these challenging economic times, I find that my paintings reflect how I feel. Dark sky, almost like a guillotine, a sliver of light at the horizon line, and a very long pathway leading towards the sunlight, but a sliver of sunlight, none the less.
As we enter, or already have entered, into this lousy economy 2009, where “the arts” have taken a tremendous hit, I’ve decided to tap into my “inner geek.” I’ve always loved Photoshop, and as a painter I have always felt that Photoshop is one of those “guilty pleasures.”
What would literally take me years to paint, I can accomplish in Photoshop in 30 minutes. Instant gratification. Presto. One of the things that I have also been doing, is learning all about designing websites. And I love it. It’s been enormously rewarding. The present design for the Mary Baker Art-Blog is a very own Mary Baker, Mary Baker Art creation. As a painter, the pink tube at the top would have taken me a very long, long time to paint, but in Photoshop, it’s a zip.
And I’ve also been experimenting with how to create different frames for the web for my paintings in Photoshop, which is an amazing amount of fun. In this post is a painting of the fields, where I live, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, a small oil on paper, in an experimental Photoshop frame.
I am incredibly excited to be in a third show at the Sherry French Gallery in New York City, “Flowers in February.” It is an honor.
The Sherry French Gallery
601 West 26th Street
NYC, NY 10001
212-646-8867
“FLOWERS IN FEBRUARY”
Representational Sculptures and Still Life Paintings
January 30th thru February 23rd, 2008
Mary Baker, (artist’s website)
(For a detailed a biography, please press here)
Rose
Oil on Paper
7” x 8”
Mary Baker © 2005
(Sold)
Group show at the:
The Sherry French Gallery
601 West 26th Street
NYC, NY 10001
212-646-8867
The show is:
“Small Sizes-Prescious Pieces”
Representational Paintings and Sculpture
November 28th-December 29th, 2007
Sunflower 3
Oil on Paper
5” x 10”
MaryBaker © 2005
Mary Baker, (artist’s website)
(For a detailed a biography, please press here)
Marsh 4
Mary Baker © 2007
Oil on Paper
6″ x 20″
(Sold)
And a nice thing happened.
A New York City realist gallery, specializing in Contemporary Realism (the kind of realism I paint) contacted me, and the art gallery has taken a few of my paintings and will include them in a couple of group shows this year.
This happened a few of weeks ago.
The Gallery is:
The Sherry French Gallery
601 West 26th Street
NYC, NY 10001
212-646-8867
The first show opens September 5– September 29, 2007.
“Mainly Maine
Landscape Paintings from Maine and Beyond”
Getting contacted by a New York gallery is nice. And seeing the realistic landscape, “Marsh 4” by Mary Baker, hanging in the heart of “Chelsea,” that has now become the heart of the art world in New York City, is nice too.
Mary Baker, (artist’s website)
(For a detailed a biography, please click here)
“The Pasture”
Oil on Paper, 5.5″ x 22″
2007 © Mary Baker
(Sold)
Along with being an artist, I am also very involved in the community that I live in, Newburyport, Massachusetts. So much so that I started The Newburyport Blog a little over a year ago.
One of the things that I’ve learned about as an artist, is how involved many of the people of Newburyport, MA are in preserving “Open Space” or Newburyport’s landscapes, something which as an artist, I had always taken for granted. Something I had always presumed would always be there.
I think paying so much attention to this fight for Open Space in Newburyport, MA is one of the many reasons that as an artist that I have gone back to painting landscape paintings.
The painting, the “Pasture” above is one of the many places that the people of Newburyport are trying to preserve.
As an artist it is a privilege to still be able to paint realistic landscapes of my home town, Newburyport, MA.
More of the “Open Space” realistic landscape paintings can be found at my artist website Mary Baker Art.
Mary Baker
Marsh 2
Oil on Canvas
20″ x 30″
Mary Baker © 2006
Landscapes of the Marsh, Newburyport, MA
I’ve been painting the marshes of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a small New England seacoast city since 1983.
I always seem to go back to them. They are compelling.
Aside from the sense of wide open space, the vastness of Newburyport landscape, I keep wondering why I go back to painting the Newburyport marshes again and again.
Last year I found out something very interesting. I don’t know whether it is germane or not, but I am intrigued.
My ancestors farmed a large piece of land on Shelter Island. The land became a State Park.
Shelter Island is at the very end of Long Island, New York, in between the two forks at the end of Long Island.
I will reluctantly admit that I have never walked the land that my ancestors farmed so faithfully.
However, about a year ago I looked up pictures on the Internet of Shelter Island. And what I discovered was that the landscape is almost exactly like the landscape of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
So what I am wondering is if the landscape of Newburyport, MA and Shelter Island is somehow in the “hard drive” of my artistic unconscious.
Mary Baker
Marsh 1
Oil on Canvas,
24” x 36 “
Mary Baker © 2006
A painting of Newburyport’s marshes
Paintings of the marshes by Mary Baker are back!
This painting “Marsh 1” is the first one of the new series of marshes that has been completed.
The last marsh painting I finished was in 2002. Probably the last time the marsh paintings were exhibited was 1995. So it’s been a while for marsh paintings from Mary Baker, that’s for sure.
I wasn’t sure whether or not I had a marsh painting left in me, but I guess I do. I ended up liking this painting of Newburyport’s marsh a lot.
Mary Baker
Oh my goodness, it’s summer and who wants to cook, not moi. But I do want to eat well. So at the end of a hot artist’s day, what to munch on?
Don’t recoil, hang in there with me, yes, folks Liverwurst.
Liverwurst, yuck, you’ve got to be kidding. Well folks, I was born and raised in New York City, so I get the liverwurst thing.
Here we go. Liverwurst has 170% Vitamin A, 10% Vitamin C and 20% Iron. The stuff is actually good for you. (Ok, the fat and cholesterol is a little high, but you’re not going to be eating gobs of it, I promise.) Think of it as the poor man’s pate. And yes it is inexpensive. Get it pre-sliced.
Get tomatoes, either crumpled feta or blue cheese (there are inexpensive brands of these in containers, cheese already pre-crumpled,) humus, garlic salt (I think a must on any shelf,) shredded regular cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, monterey jack, whatever you like,) and a loaf of half way decent French or Italian bread.
You can slice up the French or Italian bread and put it in the freezer, so it won’t get all moldy, and take out a couple of slices when you need them. (Fat loaves can be sliced and long loaves can be cut in chunks and halved.)
Aluminum foil. Get out a sheet of aluminum foil and put on let’s say two slices of bread. Spread with margarine. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Spread the humus on top. Cut one or two slices of liverwurst into thin strips and lay them with space in between on top of the humus. Sprinkle with feta or blue cheese. Top with tomato slices and sprinkle tomatoes with shredded cheese (the cheddar, mozzarella, monterey jack.)
Put under a toaster oven or under a broiler for a few minutes until cheese on top is warm and melted.
Yummy, filling, all food groups and actually good for you.
Mary Baker
Pansies
Oil on Canvas
24” x 36”
Mary Baker © 2004
The realistic painting in this post, “Pansies,” could there be a better example of “Quirkyalone?”
Here is this lovely pot of pansies sitting on a stoop on an early spring Newburyport, New England day, bathed in light, obviously utterly content in its solitude. Not schmaltzy, sentimental happy, but content.
My father, who is 88, could be considered quirkyalone. He has a lovely lady-friend, and the ladies still love him, but he has lived alone for the last 16 years and seems quite satisfied.
One of the things my father loves, loves, loves to do is go out for dinner alone. He lives in New York City so there are a lot of great places to dine. When I am in New York with him and we go out to eat, everybody seems to know him and he knows them.
My father will go and sit at a table or sometimes at the bar and order dinner. He will ask the waiters and waitresses and bartenders about their day and their lives with genuine curiosity and care. And he will often give me updates on who is doing what. No wonder he always gets seated.
My father is also one of my biggest art encouragers as an artist. I am incredibly lucky to have my Dad. Qurikyalone and quite content.
Mary Baker
(Editor’s note: I just found out that “Quirkyalone” is a book by Sasha Cagen, written in 2004. I’ve just gone to the bookstore and bought a copy and am about to sit down with a cup of tea and read it.)
(Editor’s Note: Please do not use any image that belongs to Mary Baker. It is a copyright infringement and it is against the law. I have found at least one image on another site, used without my permission, in a way that is unacceptable. The image has not been removed, and I am not pleased.
Unfortunately this forces me to put copyright information across the art images, which ruins it for everyone who would like to see the paintings. Mary Baker)