Gregory Baker’s entire life has gone straight into his art. Even in his childhood, a flat and more subdued landscape played a role, creating in him a passion for nature, variety, and freedom.

 

"In my early twenties,” he says, “I was lured away from the plains by the high mountains and rivers of New Mexico. I left the confines of a very structured reality, and came alive when I got the opportunity to visit the mountains. I discovered that nature, like the stars, was a complex chaos, full of mystery and randomness. I loved it.” 

 

He settled in Santa Fe, where he still lives, and began working as an environmental geologist. He took a brief course in painting with the late Ann Templeton in Ruidoso, New Mexico. “I knew then that someday, when time allowed, I would pursue this passion,” he remembers. Always, he honed his perceptions and learned the ways of beaver ponds and trout streams through catch-and-release fly-fishing trips.

 

His love of geology remains today, as he continues to be fascinated with the eons of history that have created all land forms. This observation has the added value of giving his landscape paintings a solid, believable configuration underlying his free impressions of the flow of light over the land.

 

Post-retirement, Baker plunged deep into the landscape by traveling for years in a series of small, but state-of-the-art solar RVs, which he always equipped with a studio space. From his efficient workshop in Santa Fe, he journeyed to mountains and deserts, lakes and streams, parks and backwoods.  He continually enjoys plein air painting trips with fellow artists. “I have always been inspired by close friends who are accomplished painters,” he says.