ALDEN BAKER (B 1928) ROCKPORT QUARRY MAINE PASTEL

ALDEN BAKER (B 1928) ROCKPORT QUARRY MAINE PASTEL
Alden Baker (b. 1928) Gallery Framed Pastel "Rockport Quarry" 1985. In frame 32"x26"x1.25". Weight 14 lbs. Pastel Award winning artist Alden Baker was born into a talented family. Her father, Samuel Burtis Baker, was a member of the Boston School of Art and was the vice principal and a general instructor at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. in the 1920s and 1930 s. Her mother, Grace Higgins, was an instructor at the Newark School of Fine Arts and an established portrait painter. Baker began her studies with her parents. She then attended the Art Students League in New York City where she studied with well known teachers William Draper, Robert Brackman and Robert B. Hale. The purity of color that distinguishes her impressionist work was more finely developed during seven summers at the Cape School of Art with the noted colorist Henry Hensche in Provincetown, MA in the 1950s. Since then, she has won 23 first place and four best-in-show awards as well as one of the three highest awards at the Pastel Society 1999 Annual juried Exhibition (the Mr..& Mrs.. Andrew Giffuni Award), The Bernhard Gold Medal for representational art at the Salmagundi Club's 2000 juried exhibition, and the 2003 Bernhard Silver Medal Award for Excellence in Pastel at the Hudson Valley Art Association's annual juried exhibition. Baker has held many teaching positions and has served on a number of boards in the metropolitan area. She was the President of the Art Centre of NJ from 2000-2002 and then a vice president. She earned the title of Master Pastelist at the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and also serves as a member of the board of directors as Corresponding Secretary and Critiques Chairman. She was active on the exhibition circuit, Baker has shown her work at Lincoln Center, Lever House, The National Arts Club, Pen & Brush Club, The Queens, Bergen, and Hammond Museums, the Butler Institute for American Art in Ohio, the Copley Gallery of Boston and many others. In 2002-2003 she participated in a traveling exchange exhibition between the United States, France, Italy and Russia. Her work is part of several large corporate collections and many are part of private collections across the country.
Condition: good