The Importance of Light

"Gondolas" by Jill Baker, oil, 30x20in, 2017, NFS/Prints available $200

Jill Baker chooses many subjects, and her facility with a brush is informed by a lifetime of painting, but in the images captured when she is away from home we see a her most highly developed sense of composition. She travels to New York, France and Italy to paint and exhibit her work, and has exhibited her work throughout the world: Paris (Palais des Congres), Florence (Palazzo Strozzi), Seoul, South Korea (U.S. Embassy), New York (Goethe Haus, among others) and elsewhere.

In “Gondolas,” there is a confident exploration of the space, both expansive and intimate; a tight configuration of boats only one set of repetitious forms, nestled together in shadow, while the architecture fills out the frame with other shapes stacked up in the distinctive Italian sunlight.

"My Room In Arles" by Jill Baker, oil, 8x10in, 2017, $5000/Prints available $200

“My Room in Arles,” despite the change in location, feels like it could be the inside of one of those windows. Perhaps the light is more diffuse, but she once again captures the pattern and relationship of shapes within the room.

Betraying the restless itch of creativity that is characteristic of so many artists, Baker is also a writer who has been a journalist, a travel writer (“Elba Journal”). a novelist (“My Turn”), and a poet (“Poems of Accord and Satisfaction”).

As an artist, Baker has done numerous illustrations for publishing houses and major magazines and has worked in production for newspapers and for Institutional Investor magazine on Madison Avenue, in New York. She has illustrated several books, including eight by Lee Pennington, including his “Appalachian Newground,” published in 2016.

Jill Baker will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio in Middletown will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

"I am very proud of my new studio, which is a Department of Energy Net Zero building, the first one in Louisville, with 22 solar panels on the roof, radiant heated floors, all LED lights within, passive solar heating and cooling (I took inspiration from Bernheim Forest buildings), with huge windows on the north for indirect light. I designed it myself."

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 74
Education: BA in Fine Arts, Baylor University (Waco, Texas); studied at the Academia di Belle Arti (Florence, Italy); MFA in Painting, Pratt Institute (New York City)
Gallery Representative: Manhattan Arts (New York City); Contemporary Arts Gallery (New Harmony, Indiana)
Website: http://www.jillbaker.com