James Baker’s oil paintings strive to find poetry and the extraordinary in the ordinary and commonplace.

Using direct observation and painterly representation, the work veers toward abstraction in its simplified form

and minimalized detail. Surface patterns merge with the suggestion of deep space and atmosphere. Olive

greens, sandy browns, faded blues and off-whites dominate the small canvases and the buildings pictured with-

in have an anthropomorphic, enigmatic resonance. Formal qualities aside, this work is rarely purely analytical.

Rather, the paintings, at their best, create a bridge between the cerebral and the sensual.

Baker’s paintings are in many private collections. He lives in Chester, CT with his wife, the writer Christine Palm.

They have four sons.

“(Baker)…finds the fragile balance between the human environment and the sea through intimately scaled

paintings filled with light.” –The Hartford Advocate.

“Baker’s Untitled Landscape #8 is. . .) a small but effusive essay in expressionism based on a street scene. Trees

and lawns converge in free-flowing strokes of shiny green paint…Light, pure and warm, with strong healing con-

notations, shines through several paintings…” –Art New England

Exhibitions:

Slater Museum, Norwich, CT

Paesaggio Gallery, West Hartford, CT

New Haven Paint & Clay Club, CT

Pearl Street Gallery, Hartford, CT

The Bridgeport Museum of Art & Industry, CT

The Pump House Gallery, Hartford, CT

Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT

The University of Connecticut Gallery, CT

West Hartford Art League, CT

Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC

Garvey Rita Art & Antiques, Orleans, MA

ARTIST STATEMENT

The color and paint handling of these pictures may suggest the climate, atmosphere and landscape of the North-

east United States where I live, but I’m equally compelled by the rhythm and balance of the picture. I stay open

to improvisation as I work. Rather than being guided by a preordained outcome or motif, I try to be responsive

to the paint and let that drive its progress. While my inspiration may initially be the sunlight on a wall, its fulfill-

ment is as much about memory and invention, as it is about observation.