David Graeme Baker, 1968 | Figurative painter

David Graeme Baker was born in South Africa, the son of a surgeon and a very creative mother. Her talents as a crafter inspired in David the attitude that if one wants something, one can easily make it oneself.

In other words, he was raised in a house that valued attention to small details and excellent work. While it’s now easy to see this in his paintings, there were no distinct signs when David was young that he would grow up and be an artist.

As a child he doodled a lot, borrowed figure drawing books from the library, and loved his grade school art class however, his high school had no art program, so it took a while at university to come back around to art making.

He graduated from Wesleyan University as an art major, having focused on sculpture; for his senior exhibition he made several large scale pieces that made his parents proud - and eventually took up an entire bay in their garage back in Erie, Pennsylvania.

In an effort to steep himself in traditional studio art, David attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He signed onto the four year Certificate program. In this age when one can get certificates for nearly anything from flossing every day for a week to attending a two hour seminar on napkin folding, it’s important to stress that THIS certificate is a big deal: four years of long days of life drawing, painting, and sculpture, lots of anatomy and a smattering of art history.

It’s a classical approach to becoming an artist and David took to it like a duck to biscotti. Within his first year he’d shifted his focus from sculpture to painting due in part to helpful nudges from members of the faculty (thank you Glenn Rudderow!).

When he wasn’t painting he was playing ultimate Frisbee, listening to and playing music and reveling in the offerings of the Italian and Asian food markets that fill South Philadelphia.

After graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he remained in Philadelphia for two years before moving to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, making a living as an artist and teacher. He met the woman he’d one day marry in Philadelphia; she agreed to go on a date with him even though he made fun of her knit hat in their very first conversation.

In 2000 David and this funny-hatted girlfriend (okay, she was no longer wearing the hat) moved to Mount Desert Island, Maine. While most artists move to Maine to focus on their landscape painting, David moved indoors (a result of the cold winters, perhaps) to focus on figures and interiors.

He lives in Hancock, Maine in a big old farmhouse that always needs painting (ironic, isn’t it?) with his wife Sarah, two impish sons named Finnegan and Corin, and a chocolate lab who’d do anything for a tummy rub. He’s found that the most effective ways to procrastinate are making espressos and following European football.

David Graeme Baker è nato a Città del Capo, Sud Africa ed è cresciuto in Pennsylvania. Dopo aver conseguito una laurea in belle arti dalla Wesleyan University, Baker è laureato presso la Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts di Philadelphia, seguendo la tradizione di Thomas Eakins e altri realisti americani.

David è un pittore figurativo che vive nelle zone costiere del Maine con la moglie, Sarah, e i loro due figli dal 2000. I dipinti di Baker sono emotivamente evocativi nella loro rappresentazione di ambienti locali e scene di interni di domesticità.

"Il pittore narrativo è come un romanziere, deve esplorare la psiche dei personaggi al fine di dare loro credibilità. I risultati, piuttosto che pulito, meta-immagini o narrazioni iconiche, sono dipinti con più di proposito modesto, aggrovigliate, le discussioni personali che fungono da trampolino di lancio per la contemplazione empatica. I dipinti risultanti sono un misto di realtà, memoria e finzione"- David Graeme Baker