Swamp Reflections 12 Colleen Baxter acrylic on canvas 24 x 18

Description

Colleen Baxter has been an art fixture for many years in the Greater Tampa Bay area.  Her travels have informed her work, and her local photography is inspirational.  As a long time member of Studio 1212, Colleen has painted and collaborated with many of the area’s best and brightest.  Studio 1212, now located in Dunedin, has been the only continuously operating artist cooperative in Tampa Bay.  The studio began in 1971 as a following of the work of William Pachner.

At an early age, Colleen Baxter discovered her natural talent for drawing and gradually turned to painting when she received a gift of a watercolor paint set. She was later introduced to oils by her middle school art teacher and continued to paint off and on over the years but never showed her work until a few years ago. Considering herself a landscape painter, her paintings are exhibited throughout the year in various venues in and around the St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida areas.

“I can’t remember when I wasn’t aware of the colors in the landscapes around me. At every turn, nature gives you a perfect picture, whether it is in the country or on city streets. Growing up in the Midwest, it was the golden wheat fields waving in the wind or the old red barn with the faded signage on its side. In Florida, it has been the wetlands and the wild life. In my travels to Europe, it’s the quaint villages with their ancient stone buildings and the history oozing out of every cobblestone street. Once in a while, there is that tiny second when suddenly and without warning, nature will give you the right combination of color, light and shadow. My mind’s eye struggles to remember those moments and I strive to take them back to my studio and get them on canvas, for they will never come again. All of these things have always inspired me to pick up a brush.”

Colleen Baxter serves at the pleasure of the Safety Harbor City Commission as an appointed member of the Safety Harbor Public Art Committee.

You can see more of her work at Fine Art America.