Note Type
Antony Hayton, Exhibit DirectorNote
Hezekiah Baker (1940-2007)
Tranquil Waters
Oil on Masonite circa mid-1980s
Image size 24" X 36”
Hezekiah Baker held traditional jobs, including working in the orange groves, but he yearned to paint, so much so that he took a correspondence art course. He knew of Alfred Hair and Harold Newton, and one day he showed a painting to Alfred Hair, who asked him how long it took to make the painting. Hezekiah replied it took most of a day, and that's when Hair shared his own fast painting methods. This would allow Hezekiah to make a living from painting. During the 1980s and into the 1990s, interest in the Highwaymen waned. Some continued to paint, while others pragmatically had to chase new careers to put food on the table. Ironically, that's precisely what Hezekiah Baker did, opening a restaurant, "House of Foods", in Fort Pierce; once Jim Fitch wrote about the Highwaymen, sales of paintings picked up, allowing Hezekiah to return to painting, his real true love.
Baker's passion for painting started at a young age. Roy McLendon said he was the third in the group after Harold Newton and Mclendon himself. Alfred Hair's influence becomes evident in this timeless river scene that creates curiosity and fascination as you feel transported to another time, a Florida commanded by nature and all its elements, water, sunlight, dense foliage, and wondrous birds. A surreal paradise that we want to somehow believe is real.