Born in Los Angeles, Suzanne Baker's family moved to a rustic ranch in the Sierra foothills when she was only five. The artist loved the outdoors and spent her time climbing the Sierras. At the age of eleven Baker earned money by selling worms to anglers and she eventually had enough money to buy her own horse. She rode bareback for three years until she had enough money to buy a saddle. Naturally drawn to animals she took on the responsibility of caring for the families livestock.

Baker's mother encouraged her love of nature and her artistic talent. Many evenings were spent with artist friends painting at the kitchen table. To earn money for college Baker worked as a pack guide in the High Sierras. She attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Suzanne Baker met her husband at school and the couple settled in the Central Valley in California near Yosemite National Park. While raising her children she continued to paint but did not attend art classes until her children were grown. She took figure drawing and composition classes at a local community college.

Source:
Southwest Art, March 2003

Suzanne Baker's love of the California Sierras and the ranchers who live amongst them stems from a youth spent in their shadows. Raised in Three Rivers, a tourist town in the Sierra foothills, Baker dreamed of becoming a horse trainer and of spending her days exploring the mountains.

As a girl, Baker saved enough money to buy a horse and saddle and may very well have carried out her plan to become a trainer had it not been for the influence of two artists in her life.

The first, her mother, was a talented painter who instilled in her children a love of the arts. The second was a watercolorist, her teacher's husband, who took Baker along with his family on painting trips into the Sierras.

Her budding fascination with art soon blossomed and after high school, Baker enrolled in art and architecture classes at the California Poly Tech in San Luis Obispo. Baker worked as a pack guide to pay for classes.

Baker married Gordon, a classmate, and the two raised a family together, never straying far from her beloved mountains. Suzanne took up painting in earnest and spent years perfecting her style. As she matured artistically, Baker found fulfillment bringing her passions together as she filled her
canvases with scenes of ranch life among the Sierras.