Alan Baker - Mixed Flowers

Alan Baker (1914-1987), Mixed Flowers 1967, oil on composition board, 60 x 44.5 cm, Lismore Regional Gallery Permanent Collection, Purchased from City of Lismore Art Prize, 1967. Photo: Carl Warner.

About the artwork
Mixed Flowers is one of about 700 floral paintings by Alan Baker. One of his commercial art clients requested he paint a bunch of flowers, and from this beginning, Baker became one of Australia's best-known floral artists.

About the artist
The notion of becoming an artist was a true privilege in the early 20th century. Alan Baker recalled, ‘I was fortunate in the extreme when my father enrolled me in the life classes conducted by J.S. Watkins in an old building in Margaret Street, Sydney.’

He was born in New South Wales, and at 13 years of age, during his days at Canterbury Boys High, he enrolled to study drawing at J.S. Watkins Art School. He left Canterbury High two years later to become a full-time art student.

J.S. Watkins school was a fertile ground in which to study and to nurture young talent because of the competitive stimulus of senior students such as Henry Hanke, Normand Baker (his brother) and William Pidgen who were all Archibald Prize winners.

Great emphasis was placed on tonal drawing in pencil, charcoal, pen, and washes, and after about four years, Baker was allowed to paint in oil colour. He entered a self-portrait in the Archibald at 18 years old, and it was accepted. Alan became an instructor at the J.S.Watkins school until he went to New Guinea.

Conserved by ICS / International Conservation Services 
Conservation notes: Dry surface cleaned and aqueous cleaned; final varnish; reframed into new frame.

ArtVenture is presented by Lismore City Council’s Destination and Economy Team in collaboration with Lismore Regional Gallery.