Meet Jennifer Baker | Contemporary Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Baker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, what do you attribute your success to?
Authenticity and connection.
I have built my business over time based on connection with the people who fall in love with and purchase my paintings. Even in the large global auction houses and galleries where I sell my work, I always make sure to communicate who I am as a person. I always tell my story.
I imagine that many people assume that making the best art is what translates into a successful career as an artist. While the quality of the work is obviously important, I have found that speaking with an authentic voice (both in my actual work and in my presence online and in person) has been one of the most important factors in my success. My business truly took flight when I put my own face and voice behind it and told my personal story.
The connection that happens between a piece of art and an art collector is always a certain kind of mystery, something totally beyond my control. But the connection that happens between the collector and the artist as people, even in a virtual sense, is something I think must be cultivated and valued.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a painter of enchanted light. I seek and capture the light in my paintings, creating spaces of refuge. My paintings are an ode to life, to becoming, and to majesty. I take my greatest inspiration from the elements of the natural world that surrounds us all every day. My hope is that my work offers people a moment of contemplation, stopping time and noticing the color of the light, the temperature and feel of the air, the leaves fluttering, the bird singing and the water flowing. My paintings are a reminder to take a moment to release the trappings of the mundane, to look up, down, far, and close. To be still.

My work is the result of meditation, intuition, and sometimes a real or perceived memory. A walk in the rain. The sky at dusk. The sunrise. The lotus flowers on the lake. The flaming sun. Koi slow-dancing in the pond. The night sky over all of humanity… The ultimate mysteries of the universe.

My paintings are made to call the viewer home. Home to the light. In a world of too much movement, speed, superficial presence, clutter, chatter, I want my paintings to be an oasis.

Getting to where I am today was definitely not easy, but also not a story of struggle and sacrifice. I think it is mostly a story of belief and consistency. I have built my art business much like I have honed my creative practice in the studio, through consistency and commitment. I began building my online presence on social media platforms, mainly Instagram, several years ago. There I found a space where I could reach lovers of beauty and art through a visual medium, a place where I was not necessarily required to be represented by a gallery or agent. While I have collaborated with many galleries in the US and Europe over the past several years (and still do), I have found the direct connection to art lovers and people in general on social media to be a very successful place for me as an artist. But I will say that it required overcoming huge challenges in my own self esteem. I had to be brave! Brave enough to come out of hiding (the studio is a bit of a temple for one, where I love to be alone, and probably could be alone forever if I let myself). I had to learn how to show my work over and over, accept rejection and keep going. And what really catapulted my success was revealing my own face and letting my voice be heard. Talking about my work, my experiences, my doubts and challenges as an artist, my creative experience. I had to show up consistently, over and over. And believe in the value of my work, no matter what.

I have learned that connection to my audience means that I will also be rejected by some. Art is a truly intimate and personal experience. There are no rights or wrongs. There is only connection. Being a successful artist in a business sense means finding your people, your niche. I cannot make everyone happy.

I want my work to open the hearts and minds of those who bring it home, to create space for breathing, for calm. That is the heart of my brand, the creation of space, to let the light in.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I have to be honest here and say that I am a total introvert! My idea of a good time is laying on the grass under the open sky or gazing at the stars and moon.
I therefore would take a beloved friend to the top of Peak 10 in Breckenridge on a bluebird Colorado day, seeing the view stretch out across the mountains and Dillon Reservoir. I would hike the Flatirons outside of Boulder in the late spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom. I would take my friend to an abandoned mine in the valley, where a mother fox made a den in the old cabin, with her five kits playing.
I would stop at sunset anywhere in Colorado, whether in the heart of Denver or on the highest fourteener, and look up!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate this shoutout to the art collector, the person who finds value in original, soulful works of art, who believes that living with original art can change your experience. This person is the core of my business.

Website: https://www.jenniferbakerart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferbakerpaintings/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpkNIFLD7c1vUYdC8IV2-4g

Other: I am also a top seller on 1st Dibs and Singulart:

https://www.1stdibs.com/creators/jennifer-l-baker/art/
https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/jennifer-baker-31075?ref=ts

Image Credits
All photos by me.