This is an auction for a pair of amazing charcoal landscapes by Michigan artist and retired professor, David Baker! He had gone his whole career thinking landscapes were a dead art, then became so entranced by the beauty around Ox-Bow that he started doing these charcoals!

Biography from dbakerart.com:

"I have understood since childhood that I was an artist. I am baffled as to how I knew this. It was certainly not from exposure, and I don’t recall anyone planting that seed. I chose to teach later. Midway through college, I watched as my mentor worked magic in a school classroom. He treated every child as a unique artist, and they responded perfectly in kind. This was an exact mirror of my early identity. I had found my life’s work. I became an artist/teacher. This dual identity has illuminated my professional career for the past four decades.

Following a degree in Art Education from Western Michigan University, I taught public school art for eight years in Michigan and Indiana. A Master of Fine Arts Degree from Indiana State University led to my teaching position at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac. During my years at Southwestern, I taught: painting, drawing, design, watercolor, color theory, and art appreciation. Some additional duties have included: managing the College Art Gallery, curating the College Art Collection, and doing mural commissions. I am now retired, with 44 years in public education.

All the while, I maintained a parallel career as an artist. I have mounted over three dozen exhibitions, have had my work included in local and regional exhibitions, and won numerous awards.

Throughout my career, I have worked in a wide variety of media, from egg tempera to wax crayon to wood sculpture. I have explored nearly every painting medium, though most of my work has been in oil, watercolor, and charcoal. I have explored a variety of genres: Post-Impressionism, Color Field Abstraction, Expressionism, and recently landscape, or fragments found in the natural landscape.

I have maintained a long association with Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan. It has been a wonderful resource for study and inspiration. I am now frequently invited to teach there. I am also on the faculty of Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, Michigan. Additionally, I teach custom workshops on a variety of topics in drawing, painting, watercolor, and design."

First piece shown measures 6" × 6¼" behind the matting; which measures 10⅛" × 10⅝".

The second piece measures 4⅞" × 7⅛" behind the matting; which measures 9⅛" × 11⅝".

It has some surface darkening and crumpling, but is sealed behind plastic and I have not removed it to inspect.

Both are phenomenally executed, lovely landscapes with a lot of emotion.