Introduction to Lisa Baird

Speaker 1 0:00

My guest today is Lisa Baird. Lisa is an amazing artist that's located here in Grand County. We talk about her love for painting some of the favorite spots that she likes to go to here in Grand County and some of the work that she's been commissioned to do on some of the iconic buildings and places here in the county. So please sit back and enjoy my interview with Lisa. Good afternoon, lisa. How are you?

Speaker 3 0:43

I'm doing well, Gaylene. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 0:46

Bad on a snowy day? Yes. Does it make you want to get out? Yes and no.

Speaker 3 0:54

I like looking out. It's very beautiful, but boy, it is really we got winter today.

Speaker 1 0:59

We did get winter, well, all weekend. So it's yeah, I think we probably got I don't know, I'm guessing, but I'm thinking like maybe a foot and a half probably so.

Speaker 3 1:11

Yeah, I, I saw that the resort um posted eight inches since this morning. So, wow, yeah, so, and I probably a lot last night too.

Speaker 1 1:22

So yeah, and it's powder day, that's. It's a good day to get out. Well, lisa, let's talk about you are a fantastic artist and tell me a little bit about how you ended up in Grand County and your art background in Grand.

Speaker 3 1:44

County and your art background. Well, I came to Grand County as a tourist, probably the same as everybody else. My husband and a friend were coming out mountain biking and this was 30 some years ago probably and so we came out and had a great wonderful. So we came out and had a great, wonderful, beautiful summer and then we started taking ski vacations and then when we ended up in Denver we ended up with a condo and then eventually we moved up here full time. So I've been full time up here for about six or seven years and when I got up here full time, I've always just loved art, always done as much art and creative things. It just kind of makes me tick. When I was in college I took a lot of art classes, as many as I could, without being an art major. That's really impacted me a lot.

Speaker 1 2:44

We should do a shout out, because we're both alums of Hastings College.

Speaker 3 2:49

That's right, and they really impacted me. It's a wonderful place.

Speaker 1 2:54

It is. It's a great school, and their art program was amazing as well.

Speaker 3 2:59

Right and still is. I mean a lot of you know. Professor McGee is still there and my son just graduated from there, not in art, but biology.

Speaker 1 3:10

Nice. Well then, when you moved up here, did you start? Because you do watercolor, correct, I'm actually.

Speaker 3 3:17

I'm an oil painter.

Speaker 1 3:18

So oil painter.

Speaker 3 3:19

Okay, pretty much exclusively in oil. I find that the oil paints they allow me I can do layers over things and so I can fix my mistakes, and so I just like that media a lot better. I ended up so even before we moved up here, I took a lot of classes with Karen Vance, and then I took some classes at the Art Students League down in Denver as well. So I did that for kind of as long as I could and then I just kind of started painting, and when you're up here it's just so beautiful, it's very easy to do.

Speaker 1 3:58

So you were commissioned to do a painting of Beaver's Lodge, which gosh gosh was, I think.

Speaker 3 4:06

It was built in the 70s um, you know, actually, I think it was even earlier than that okay, yeah I just came across some new photos that some people shared with me, and I think they were from like the late 1950s, even oh wow, I'm not sure and it wasn't called Beaver's Village. Then it was called something else.

Speaker 1 4:32

We'll have to find a little bit more history on that. But yeah, the iconic ski lodge, but they're tearing it down. Was it the town of Winter Park that contacted you?

Speaker 3 4:44

So actually I've done that painting twice. I'm getting ready to do it a third time. So I did it in the summertime, I did it in the wintertime, and the first time what happened was I was doing plein air for plein air at altitude, which is a great event that we have every year here and I was going to paint on site at the reception, and I was just looking for a subject matter and a friend of mine said hey, why don't you paint beaver's village? And so I did it for that, and then it immediately sold, and then I was commissioned to do it again, and so I did that, and then I have prints of it actually as well.

Speaker 1 5:24

So yes, I bought, I bought one.

Speaker 3 5:29

You have the artist proof print. So and now another another couple who grew up going to Beavers Village, they've they've asked me to do another one in a little different format, so that's going to be really fun. I'm anxious to get started on that, but it is really meaningful to me. I mean both. You know we have these beautiful surroundings in nature, but if you place you know, a building or a monument or some people in it, to me it's even more special and it kind of places you know of brings back the memories of what people experience when they're up here.

Speaker 1 6:12

Absolutely. I'm so glad that there will be this artist print of that building Every time coming into the valley. There it was right Red Beaver Village.

Speaker 3 6:25

Yep, that's, exactly right yeah.

Speaker 1 6:28

You have done a lot of other paintings here in the county. What is your favorite of what you've done?

Speaker 3 6:37

You know, the last thing I finished is always my favorite, which is usually a good thing. I just finished one of the gondola in Winter Park that I'm really excited about and the other one that is really hitting me right now. I think I'm just on a ski mode right now, but I did the ski train coming into Winter Park with the Gemini kind of behind it and skiers, because that's such a beautiful thing. I have taken Amtrak, actually from Hastings. I was out with my son and ended up without a car, I don't know exactly and it's just a beautiful train ride. And it's just a beautiful train ride and so that people can do that from Union Station and come skiing, come to the valley and do different things is an incredible experience.

Speaker 1 7:29

In your process? Do you take pictures or do you set up an easel there, and what is your process on how you end up starting and finishing a painting?

Speaker 3 7:40

Well, so when I paint in plain air I take an easel on site, but that is kind of hard to do when it's cold out.

Speaker 1 7:50

I was going to say you don't see very many artists out.

Speaker 3 7:53

So and even when I do, you know a lot of I am very lucky. I have a nice space to work in my home and so I will go on site and take a lot of pictures and photos and then bring them back, and then I have an easel set up Actually, I have about three easels because I usually keep a number of things so I have something like in the beginning, the middle and the end at all times. That just helps me with getting things done and making sure that I'm happy with them. But I'll work off a number of different reference photos.

Speaker 1 8:29

Okay, what about the summer months? Have you ventured away from the Winter Park?

Speaker 3 8:33

Fraser area, you know there's a really nice group of people up here that do plein air painting on site and we go out about once a week Now I don't make it every time for sure and it's a very friendly, just nice way to go different places. But we will go as far as Hot Sulphur Springs over by. I think it's Pioneer's Park at the mouth of Byers Canyon. That's a beautiful place where you see. You know, any place where it's a good fishing spot is probably also a very good painting spot. Grand Lake would go there, both the town up above and on the lake. There's great places painted over in Granby. I mean, you know, geez, there's any place you turn your head. It's just beautiful.

Speaker 1 9:25

It is. We're very fortunate to live in such a great community. So, lisa, where can people find some of your work?

Speaker 3 9:33

Oh, thanks for asking that. So I have a website. They're in fine art and I'm also active on both Instagram and Facebook. But Naked Aspen Designs in Fraser has has prints of mine, as well as Winter Park Frameworks in Winter Park, so those are the two places where you can see my things all the time.

Speaker 1 9:55

And then, what is your Facebook and Instagram?

Speaker 3 9:59

Lisa Ramone Baird on Facebook, and I think it's just Lisa underscore Baird on Instagram.

Speaker 1 10:06

Okay, perfect, and so people, if they're up here, should go to those two locations. I have a feeling you're going to be probably in more locations. That means you're going to be out painting a lot more.

Speaker 3 10:19

You know what I love that, so it really makes me happy. It makes me happy.

Speaker 1 10:25

Good for you that you're able to do what you really enjoy doing.

The Journey to Grand County and Artistic Background

Speaker 3 10:29

So I'm very fortunate.

Speaker 1 10:31

And then people can also find you online and order from there as well. Right, right.

Speaker 3 10:37

Actually I don't have a direct. I have an Etsy site, but it's not really.

Speaker 1 10:48

Just email me and we'll work.

Speaker 3 10:49

Okay, then out of the problem. Getting on Instagram or Facebook is the best, yeah, or just my website. There's a contact phone up form on there perfect, lisa.

Speaker 1 10:54

Thank you so much for your time today. Oh my goodness, this was awesome. Thanks, kayleen. I need to try to get out and go cross country skiing, that'd be really fun, so pack down a little bit. You don't want to break trail. No, I don't want to break the trail. Well, lisa, take care, and I can't wait to see you.

Speaker 3 11:16

Okay, that'd be nice. Okay, sounds good. See ya, thank you.

Speaker 1 12:41

Thank you, my. My guest today is Lisa Baird. Lisa is an amazing artist that's located here in Grand County. We talk about her love for painting some of the favorite spots that she likes to go to here in Grand County and some of the work that she's been commissioned to do on some of the iconic buildings and places here in the county. So please sit back and enjoy my interview with Lisa.