Lot 210: David Curtis Baker (1915 - 1999)

David Curtis Baker (1915 - 1999) Coastal Watercolor with sailboats. Sight Size: 9.5 x 29 inches. Signed and dated lower left. David Curtis Baker, painter, author and teacher, was born on October 15 1915 in New York City, New York at the Salvation Army Hospital. He spent his childhood in Boston, Massachusetts and studied art a the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston from 1934-1938. He served in the US Navy in the Pacific during World War II and saw combat. In 1951 he opened his first gallery in Jackson, New Hampshire. He painted in oils, watercolors, pastels, pencil, ink, and markers. His styles varied from impressionism to abstraction. He invented his own technique called 'vitreous flux' in 1961. Baker taught art throughout his career. Baker was prolific painter and exhibiter was represented in twenty-eight one man shows including the Museum of Art, Portland, Maine (1959). He had thirteen regional exhibitions, earning 8 awards, including, the James W. Hill Memorial Award (New Hampshire Art Association, 1961 Annual Show), and the Grace Bliss Stuart Award (New Hampshire Art Association 1965 Traveling Exhibition). He also had nineteen national shows and nine prizes, including, the Grumbacher Purchase Award (Allied Artists of America Exhibition 1968), and awards at the 1966, 1970, 1972 shows of the Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Engravers Society Annual Exhibition. Throughout his career, David Baker was featured in many publications including the American Artist, June 1972; Painting With Markers, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1972; the La Revue Moderne des Arts de la Vie, 1967-1968; Yankee, 1968; the Christian Science Monitor, January 19,1958, Prize Winning Water Color Book No. 7; Art Review, 1966; Today's Art, 1958; and the Boston Herald, Hayden Pearsons column, 1953.