We are pleased to welcome Torquay artist to the Cafe for the first time, Peter is displaying his artwork throughout February and has kindly provided a short biography for us:

Peter Baker was born in Rochford Essex on 02/01/48 the illegitimate son of a local artist but moved to London when his stepfather found employment in the City. Very early on it was noticed that he was ‘visually gifted’ and private coaching in painting and drawing was arranged for him at home, 1955. As his education advanced, his ability grew and he was selected to show work at the All London Schools Art Exhibition, held at the Mall Galleries in 1957 where he was presented with the second prize. The headmaster and teaching staff at his secondary school also recognised Peter’s artistic talent and designed a personal curriculum allowing him to illustrate the school magazine and reduce his academic studies to English, maths and art; this gave him the opportunity to prepare a folio of artwork for interview. The Headmaster also arranged for Peter to attend an interview at Hornsey College of Art in 1963 where he was accepted as an ‘exceptional case for admission’, aged fifteen and although lacking any formal qualifications, went on to study graphic design, illustration and printmaking. On completing this course, he was then invited to further his studies, (and presented with a bursary award,) in painting and drawing at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London. 1967.

Like all freelance artists, Peter soon found out that making a living in commercial art was tough in London but managed to find continuous employment through specialist employment agencies. These contracts involved working as a designer, illustrator, draughtsman, technical illustrator, print technician; the number and variety of employers are too numerous to list here but included the BBC and Fleet Street. During these years, Peter decided to study at evening classes to gain his basic academic qualifications and gained GCSE and A levels before leaving London for the West of England where he
continued to work as an illustrator in Bath for the MOD. Being married to a teacher, Peter was soon being invited to give demonstrations in local schools and colleges and found that he was attracted to teaching; in fact, he abandoned the commercial side of his work to qualify as an art teacher at Bath College of Higher Education, as a mature student. The Cert Ed course, normally of three years duration, was shortened to two years in Peter’s case, supplemented with a special paper on ‘The Psychology of Perception in the Visual Arts’, (graded A pass, Bristol University,) which made the transition to the B. Ed (hons) course a natural progression. After some years working in secondary schools, Peter branched
out into Community Education where he excelled as an art tutor being graded by Offsted as ‘exceptional’ and ‘excellent’. Later he was awarded and educational ‘Oscar’ for his achievements in adult education by South Devon College. In 2005, Peter retired from mainstream education to concentrate on his own work but was shocked to realize that so many years of teaching had resulted in a lowering of his own high standards. After critically assessing his own artwork he decided to enrol in life drawing classes Tutored by Mr Robin Thomas SGFA for five years. During this time, Peter was invited to apply for membership to the Society of Graphic Fine Arts and was subsequently accepted as an associate member in 2010 and exhibited with the society in the same year at the Menier Gallery in London.

Peter Baker, like so many artists before him, was not blessed with any sense of business or special ability to make a living from his painting. He has always been a realist in this respect and kept the commercial and personal sides of his art separate; this has meant that his artwork has not been exhibited widely to the general public; beyond being represented in local galleries and ‘open’ exhibitions. In the past he has had many patrons/commissions, too many to recall, and now his work can be found in numerous collections, the length and breadth of Briton. In addition, he has donated/gifted paintings and drawings to charities and fellow artists, students and models. Being ‘retired’ Peter no longer has to take on work that he finds tiresome or beneath his skill level, he has always resisted the temptation to ‘prostitute’ his art for the sake of profit, much to the annoyance of his wife and bank manager! He can now study what he wishes to, irrespective of popularity and sales. This is why he has spent the last year concentrating on drawing the fast disappearing sailing boats and barges now rotting in our muddy estuaries, these ‘working craft’ once commonplace around our coasts and rivers are quickly becoming tomorrows archaeology, and rare. (See website www.pabaker.co.uk) Most of the other folios are dedicated to figurative work,  (from life only,) a subject close to the artists heart and a lifelong area of study. Peter has also made this traditional subject central to his teaching of drawing and painting for many years and will often ‘come out of retirement’ to help students who are now expected to have quality life drawings as part of their interview presentation, and rightly so!

There remains one other area that the artist wishes to develop in the coming years and that is his oil painting. Although fully trained in this craft, he never had the time to give this aspect of picture making the full time and the attention required. Unfortunately, the market place is saturated with ‘artists’ who believe that a copy of a photograph is good art; alas, it is only a copy of a photograph however pretty the lady or the beautiful the scene, and however well it is painted it can only be second rate, as all copies are! For these reasons, he may concentrate on marine subjects especially as he lives on the Devon coast in the immediate future.

Peter has two children who he had hoped would follow in his footsteps and become artists but like most children, they proved to be a disappointment to their parents! Sarah, who showed such promise with her drawing skills became a Particle Physicist and is now working on the Hadron Collider in Switzerland and Jon, who never showed any interest in art as a child, is now a Micro Biologist researching at Leicester University.........never mind, I suppose it could be worse!!!