What happens when two retired Nevada County professionals become artists and fast friends? In the case of retired Nevada Union High School art teacher Terence D. Baxter and retired Nevada County Superior Court Judge Frank Francis, it means a showcase of their shared love of the Yuba River Watershed.
The mixed media art show opens January 20 at the Granucci Gallery inside the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.
Terence D. Baxter taught drawing and painting at Nevada Union for 24 years before retiring in 2019. During that time, he put his own artistic pursuits on hold.
“Before I came up here, I was showing down at a gallery in Sacramento called Archival, but after I got here there was too much to keep that going,” he said. “I was also teaching at Sierra College for a bit, and it was just too much with raising a family, being in a new situation, all that stuff. I just pulled back and thought it would happen when it happened and that was not the time.”
Baxter loved teaching, in total for 34 years and did so without regret.
“Teaching, for me, I absolutely loved it, and I would not have changed that career for anything,” he said. “For me, it’s all in. I cannot, personally, be a studio artist and a teacher at the same time. I don’t have that much width or depth to me!”
Shortly before retiring, with kids out of the house and his career winding down, he decided to start inching back into the studio. Some former grad school classmates contacted him to see if he’d like to participate in a show. That was all the excuse he needed.
“That first September (after retirement) my wife, daughter, and I traveled for a month in Scotland,” he said. “Out of that trip I did a whole series of pastel drawings based on the sky and air above the hills and then I did a show back at Archival and it was off to the races.”
This show will be his second at the Center for the Arts but the first he pursued with his friend, Frank Francis, in mind.
“If you haven’t seen Franks work, you are in for a real treat,” Baxter said. “It’s extraordinary. He’s an extraordinary man. As a photographer, he is after the viewer more than he is after the photograph. What I mean by that is he really wants the photograph to affect the viewers sensibilities and to take them some places they may not be ready to go.”
The two artists became fast friends. “We started buddying up a bit. He came over to my studio to see my work and then I went over to his studio to see his work,” Baxter said. “As I looked at image after image, I knew he had to show them because they are so, so good.”
After 19 years “on the bench” Francis retired in 1997.
“Even when I was on the bench, the art was always on the horizon, but I had more time when I retired,” he said. “I always took pictures but as time went by, I got more serious, so it was an evolution.”
Francis took long trips on small boats, immersing himself for the photography. The rigorous and consuming trips in Africa and Asia have stopped, but his eye for seeing the extraordinary in the everyday has not.
Francis said his focus shifted from time spent immersed in other countries to looking at his surroundings at home and at the Yuba River. In his artist statement he writes, in part “…the Yuba rivers contain some of the most moving and intriguing stone forms sculpted at the hands of nature, with water as its chisel. When they are seen arrayed together, they look like a sculpture garden. Light shifts and dances on the stone changing configurations, creating shadows and highlighting the sensuality of their multiple surfaces...for this exhibition, I used light, composition, color and form to display ordinary objects from our local area to expose their unique attraction, interest and beauty.”
Francis said he takes photographs as a means of creating. “With all human beings there is a certain compulsion to create, and photography is how I work mine out.”
As for the transition from international subjects in the remote corners of Africa and Asia to turning his focus closer to home, he said, “The motivation is nature in general. Rocks and mud are really what it is,” he laughed. “The thing I have discovered is when you look closely, what you see is so much beauty. That is what Terry is doing also, but with paint.”
“You try to train yourself to be aware and sometimes you find it,” Francis said. “But there is another element to nature and when you are focusing on small areas or are looking for that one shot you sometimes miss the rest, so you must be careful and tell yourself to look at the full picture.”
Baxter feels his paintings and drawings are a nice contrast to the photographs, though viewers may notice a similar style in composition. The show features the work of the two men who have been in the county for years and focuses on a sense of what they see.
Both men have high praise for their counterpart. Francis has not shown this work before and credits Baxter with making it happen.
“This was Terry’s idea,” Francis said. “He wanted to do something centered on the Yuba and for me Malakoff, so we discussed it, and he signed us up.”
In response to what he hopes for those who come to the show, Baxter said, “I think most artists want people to go through their own experience. I like to think of it as I built a theater set or stage, but I cannot control what people bring in when they come in and sit down, their lives have all these things going on, so when they come in, I’m just hoping they can look and go through this experience of color and form and let them go where they go.”
The show, “Markings along the Pathways of the Yuba Watershed” opens with an artist reception Friday, January 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. An artist talk is scheduled for Friday, February 3, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The show closes March 4.
On the Cover Frank Francis and Terence Baxter looking for subject matter. The two retired Nevada County professionals are showcasing of their shared love of the Yuba River Watershed with a mixed media art show, opening Jan. 20. | Submitted photo {related_content_uuid}cb9d1a14-1111-4bd4-8ce8-53007e0a79de{/related_content_uuid}
KNOW & GO WHAT: Frank Francis & Terence D. Baxter Art Exhibition WHERE: The Center for the Arts Granucci Gallery | 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley WHEN: January 20 — March 4 | Opening Reception, January 20, 5-7 p.m. | Artist Talk, February 3, 5:30 — 7:30 p.m. WEBSITE & INFO: https://thecenterforthearts.secure.force.com/ticket/#/events/a0S6g00000EteKKEAZ or (530) 274-8384 {related_content_uuid}e467b27e-09f9-4ee2-b31a-6867a37c2737{/related_content_uuid}