Colored Pencil Artist
Background / Experience Documents:
Jeffrey Smart Baisden was born in Fort Payne, Alabama and grew up in the Florida Panhandle. She graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Art Education. After moving to Live Oak, Florida in 1974 to teach at Suwannee High School, she developed the Fine Arts program teaching grades 9-12, Advanced Placement and adult painting. On weekends, Jeffrey exhibited her artwork in regional exhibitions. Discovering Prismacolor Pencils in 1980 as a valuable teaching tool, she began exploring the medium along with her students. These improved colored pencils offered the desired color and control of painting and were portable. In 1992, she resigned from public school to devote full time to drawing and exhibitions.
Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as twenty-six Colored Pencil Society of America International Exhibitions, receiving Awards of Excellence in 1996, 2001, 2007,200 . In February 2003, she received the prestigious CPSA Exceptional Merit Award at the Explore This! Experimental Exhibition. Her drawings are included in the series The Best of Colored Pencil 2, 3, and 4, Colored Pencil Explorations, Strokes of Genius 9, Drawing Reflections in Colored Pencil, Colored Pencil Treasures, CPSA Signature Showcase, The American Artist Magazine, and The Artist’s Magazine.
Jeffrey is a Signature and Twenty-Five Year Merit Award member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and a past president of the CPSA District Chapter 113-Gainesville. She was selected to teach two of the national workshops at the CPSA Convention and Exhibition in Memphis, TN 2004 and in Bethesda, MD 2018. She has served as District Chapter Development Director for CPSA.
Awards:
Twenty-five-year merit award recipient for CPSA
International Exhibition 2018 Chicago, IL Greasers
International Exhibition 2017 Bethesda, MD
International Exhibition 2016 Tacoma, WA Surrogates
Artist Statement:
“I am a treasure seeker in search of treasures that can be arranged, interpreted, and preserved. I am not seeking to record classic beauty, but intimate spaces, discarded items, and a moment in time. I require the viewer look at subjects that are not usually considered regarded art subjects. I want to take functional utilitarian objects and tell a story or provoke the viewer to respond with his own story. The title of the work is part of the artist’s gift and should spark the viewer’s imagination to go in many directions. I want to take the viewer along as we discover a unique type of beauty often overlooked. My role as an artist is to entice the viewer to look, linger and respond to the subject, the color, textures, and details. Colored pencil as a medium enables me to achieve these results.”
Exhibitions:
- Colored Pencil Society of America
- International Exhibition 2024 Brea, California
- International Exhibition 2022 Dunedin, FL
- International Exhibition 2021 Online
- International Exhibition 2020 Online
- International Exhibition 2019 Brea, CA
- Explore This! West Bend Art Museum, West Bend, Wisconsin 2001
- CPSA Signature Showcase Cornell Museum Delray Beach, FL 2006
- Southeastern Juried Exhibition 1996 Mobile Museum of Art
- Gallery 84 National Exhibition 1995 New York, New York
- Florida Artists Group Eckerd College, St. Petersburg 2025
- Florida Artists Group Florida State College at Jacksonville 2024
- Florida Artists Group Museum of Arts and Science Daytona Beach 2023
- Florida Artists Group Online (Covid) 2022
- Florida Artists Group Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin 2021
- Florida Artists Group Ridge Art Association 2006
- Fifth Annual Regional Fine Arts Exhibition Fort Walton Beach, Florida 1997
- Florida Art Center National 100 Exhibition Havana, Florida 1996,1997,1998
- National Exhibition 2000, 2002 Punta Gorda, Florida
- 20th National Exhibition New Orleans, LA 2000, 2001, 2002
- National Exhibition Hilton Head Island, S. C. 2000