This biography from the Archives of AskART:
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Born in 1961 in New York City, Garin Baker was raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With artistic influence from his parents and strong focus on working from life from art teachers at The High School of Art & Design he was awarded a scholarship to study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. At Pratt he felt a limited availability to work from life so he added to his studied at The Art Students League in New York City where he attended traditional life classes with instructors David A. Leffel and Ted Seth Jacobs. After four years at Pratt he received a BFA in Fine Arts with a minor in Art History and Illustration.
Upon graduation and entry into the chaos and confusion of the New York art market, Garin found his way by making a living as an illustrator, after winning several awards for his work including first prize at The Student Competition at the Society of Illustrators in 1983.
After several years he built a career as busy illustrator but Garin felt a burning desire to paint what he wanted. So in between deadlines for New York Magazine, Bantam Books, advertising agencies and countless other, he would work on his own paintings and stack them in his studio. Closest to his heart are the influences of great painters like John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, Russian Realist like Illa Repin, Ivan Shishkin and Americans painters like Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Eakins, and Frank Duveneck just to name a few.
With some invitations to shows and exhibitions he was able to receive some respectable prices for his fine art work. In 1990, with his young family in tow he moved from a small apartment in NY City, 60 miles north along the Hudson River to a 1790 stone house, carriage house and post and beam barn in New Windsor NY. This property needed complete renovations but Garin being ambitious and optimistic had great hopes for the future. With limited resources, he began the long process of using his income as an illustrator towards transforming this colonial run down property into a grand home and art studios. With the renovations on the main house complete and continuing on the barn and carriage house Garin Baker has started a small mural company. He has over the last few years begun to interest clients in the use of grand scale murals reminiscent of the WPA Era in addition to offering apprenticeship programs and workshops to artists interested in working traditionally and from life.
As a mid career fine artist, muralist and illustrator Garin Baker actively exhibits his work in New York City and the Hudson Valley region. Garin Baker works in oils, watercolors and pastels. Working primarily from life and on the spot studies he documents a moment in time. His subjects include complex compositions to simple figure studies. His realism, combined with an expressive nature in intended to show passionate engagement with a variety of contemporary images including large New York cityscapes filled with bustling people set in dramatic light situations to spacious rural landscapes reminiscent of the Hudson River School of Painting.
At the core of his work is a strong sense of humanity and its relationship to the environment. "No need to shock or over intellectualize when simple human emotions, communicated visually, can bring us to a place were we can all share our common experiences". He shows no limits to his interests and explores new subjects with passion and diligence.
Garin Baker also teaches life painting at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. To his credits are numerous gallery exhibitions and awards. He has been listed in the Encyclopedia of Living Artists and his reputation as a New York Realist was recognized with a nationally reviewed show entitled Three Generations of New York Realist in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1999.
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