Baird, Dwight

Biography

Born and raised in Huntingdon, a small town southwest of Montreal, Canada, Dwight Baird has been painting full-time for the last forty-five years, specializing in watercolours for the first twenty-five and working in acrylics for the last twenty years.

Upon graduation with a diploma in Visual and Creative Arts from St. Lawrence College in Cornwall, Ontario, he worked briefly as a graphic artist and then spent two years traveling and painting in Europe. These travels resulted in the first two collections of his work – “A Touch of Europe”(1983),
and “There And Back Again” (1986).

During the following twenty years Baird presented four additional series of paintings revolving around specific themes – “Newfoundland” (1989), “Carny-Midway”(1992), “For The Love Of The Game – The Baseball Collection” (1994), and “Night Vision” (2000).

Following “For The Love Of The Game”, he founded “The Show” Posters and published many images in lithograph and poster format. He became one of the very few artists to be licensed by Major League Baseball Properties, both in Canada and the USA. In 1992 he was commissioned by Major League Baseball to complete three illustrations for the Major League Baseball All-Star Program for an article on Fantasy Baseball Camps. Following this, the cover concept for the 1994 Major League Baseball Program was inspired by Baird’s now classic image, “At the Twilight’s Last Gleaming”.

In 1995 he was commissioned by the McCord Museum in Montreal for an original watercolour to be used for the poster of their exhibition “Play Ball Montreal!”. In the year 2000 he was honoured as a recipient of a Premier’s Award, presented annually to graduates of Ontario community colleges for outstanding accomplishment in a specific field of study (Visual Arts).

For the last twenty years, Baird has been working in acrylics, developing a new style of contemporary realism – mixing broad impressionist brush strokes combined with specific detailed areas in his work. He has produced an extensive series of pieces on Cuba, depicting many facets of the daily struggle throughout the country. These works are not only a dramatic illustration of the challenges of urban life but also a historical documentation of a country striving for dramatic change – a pictoral record of a time in their history which will never be seen again.

Baird exhibits in many of the most prestigious art festivals throughout Canada and the USA and has won numerous prizes for his work. Baird lives and works in Montreal.