MARTHA REA BAKER
Large Abstract Paintings
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505.820.0807 call or text • art@owencontemporary.com
Artist Statement
Martha Rea Baker in her studio
My paintings begin with an idea or feeling. It could be a memory of a time and place, music, poetry, nature or contemporary observations. I usually have a color tone in mind, one that conveys the mood of the original idea. However once I start to paint, I don’t force the issue. I begin with automatic drawing in charcoal and oil pastel followed by spontaneous layers of color, remaining in this “non-thinking” state as long as possible. I allow the painting to have a life of its own, each line, brushstroke and layer informing the next. I hope to achieve a bit of mystery in my work, inviting the viewer to bring his personal experience to the painting.
Martha Rea Baker was born in Corsicana, TX and raised in Clinton, MS. She attended the University of Mississippi and the University of California at Santa Barbara, graduating form UCSB with a BA in English Literature in 1965. Martha lived in Plano, TX with her husband, Bill Baker, and their three sons for 40 years before relocating to Santa Fe, NM in December of 2006. She studied art design and drawing at the University of Dallas in Dallas, TX and portfolio printmaking for ten years at Collin College in Plano, TX. Martha also enjoyed art foreign studies in Greece, Italy, Russia, France and the Czech Republic.
Her work has been published in Southwest Art: “Women in the Arts” November, 1996 and Watercolor, March 1998. Splash V, the Best of Watercolor, the Glory of Color, features her painting, “Stage of Antiquity”. In addition, Baker’s paintings have been selected for many private and corporate collections including Wyndham Hotel, Albuquerque, NM, Embassy Suites, St. Paul, NM, Hilton Hotel, Columbia, MD, Presbyterian Hospital of Plano, Plano, TX and North Texas Cardiology Associates, Dallas, TX.
Martha Rea Baker is a signature member of the Mississippi Watercolor Society and The Southwestern Watercolor Society. Her work has been included in over 75 invitational and group exhibitions, including Watercolors Without Boundaries in Milan, Italy in 2001.
Having painted for 35 years, Martha is now working in acrylic collage and encaustic (melted beeswax, fused with heat). She enjoys abstracting her subjects and creating surfaces of subtle texture and rich patina through many thin layers of paint or wax. In both mediums, Martha scrapes back through the layers to uncover previous marks, thus achieving mystery in her work.
Education:
University of California Santa Barbara, Bachelor of Arts, 1965
University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (1962-1964)
University of Dallas, Dallas, TX
Collin College, Plano TX—Portfolio Printmaking (1995-2005)