Alix Baker

Biography

After art school in London I spent several years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Busy jobs suspended my art side and eventually I left to devote more time to it. For the greater part of my art career I was one of the UK's leading military artists specialising in military dress through the centuries with a particular interest in the effects of campaigns on dress. I worked on official commissions for military units and museums, for collectors worldwide, also contributing maps and illustrations to history books and articles for specialist journals. Designers of silver statues and model soldiers have frequently modelled their work on figures in my paintings. Now I paint many other subjects, in several styles and media, and exhibit widely in London and elsewhere. My particular areas of interest are marine subjects and people and places at home and overseas. Having lived in Oman for 3 years, the country and its people remain an abiding inspiration for my work. I am a member of several national and local art societies. I also judge art exhibitions and write articles on various aspects of painting as a hobby or profession. I have been fortunate to win many awards at exhibition. I have exhibited with the ROI, RSMA, RBA, SWA, UA and Chelsea Art Society and others, particularly at the Mall Galleries. It is hard to sum up in a few words my art, its style and inspiration, my interpretation of light and colour. All I know is that, like many artists, I get a physical craving, particularly when it is not possible to access time or art materials. I carry a notebook everywhere in which to jot down thoughts, notes on colours, light direction, ideas etc. I’m for ever looking up at the sky and the many colours to be found in clouds! Having devoted so many years to work that was more illustrative, I am trying to loosen up and perhaps that is why my style is constantly evolving. Inspiration is all around and I rather wish I had spent more years developing my non-military side - fewer committee meetings for a start! I feel there is a genetic link to the subjects I have painted over the years. Many ancestors were in the armed services, several were artists, explorers and one grandfather artist also built his own racing yachts. So I should not be at what I choose to paint now and in the future............!