Instructor Profiles
Karen Baker CPS PSA is a professional artist-instructor who paints primarily in the pastel medium. Her paintings are colorful, textural, and engaging. As a teacher, she enjoys helping students discover their creative voice and innate abilities through self-exploration. She is a Signature Member of both Connecticut Pastel Society and Pastel Society of America, and an artist member of Vermont Pastel Society, Southwest Florida Pastel Society, and Pastel Society of Tampa Bay. She exhibits in regional and national shows and is represented by galleries in New England, New York and Florida.
Diane Allen is an articulate instructor who has been teaching for 33 years. A graduate of UMass with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she paints still life, portraits, florals, landscapes, seascapes, and townscapes, and is proficient in both watercolor and pastels. Her creative use of color and lighting techniques add romance and excitement to her traditional paintings. She has exhibited in many prestigious group and solo shows throughout the Northeast, where her work has won numerous awards. Her paintings have appeared in international publications including North Light Books' Splash 6 and Splash 7. She was chosen as the official artist for the US Women's Open 2000, held in South Hadley, Ma., and prints of her painting Hole #4, Orchards Country Club carried the official seal of the 2004 Open. She is a signature member of the New England Watercolor Society, North Shore Artists Association, Academic Artists Association, and the Connecticut Pastel Society.
Janet Taylor is an accomplished artist and teacher who is sensitive to the individual needs and style of each student. Taylor graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a BFA in painting and a Masters degree in education. She also studied painting at Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her work has been accepted into numerous national exhibitions since 1974. She has traveled to many places and lived for a while in Alaska and also on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. From her travels and her teaching experience, she is able to provide students with a broad range of information. She now makes her home in southern Vermont.
Karen Baker--Creativity Coach
As a fine artist and instructor, my love and adoration for nature continues to inspire my unique vision of the world in which we live. In addition, the foundation of my work has always remained focused on the “creative process” as the single most important ingredient in making art. It is the process I identify with—the mystery that transforms a blank canvas into a story of color and shapes.
I have come to know the creative process as the life force that flows through all of us. In the right supportive environment, where we are encouraged to freely release this inherent energy, we are better able to express visually the life of spirit within.
When we are expressing ourselves creatively, we are all artists no matter what our past experiences have been in making art. We all have creative vision and a creative “voice.”
It is my aim and commitment through my art and teaching activities to continue exploring the creative process as a tool for learning more about who I truly am and what my spirit needs to impart here on earth for the higher growth and betterment of all mankind.
As a creativity coach, I have incorporated what I learn from my own development as an artist into the teaching methods I use during landscape painting workshops. These methods help students identify and release the creative process in their own art endeavors.
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