Artist Spotlight: Hannah Ivory Baker
Hannah Ivory Baker’s Studio
Working from her North London studio, Hannah Ivory Baker paints landscapes, seascapes and contemporary floral still lifes that sit between observation and memory. Her work occupies the space where places are remembered rather than precisely recorded, where colour, light and atmosphere matter more than exact geography. Fields soften into gesture, horizons dissolve into rhythm, and coastlines become movements of colour and light. The result is painting that feels both familiar and emotionally open, allowing viewers to bring their own experiences to the work.
For Baker, painting is less about depicting a specific location and more about capturing how a place feels. As she explains in her Painting Insights interview, her process begins long before she reaches the canvas. Walks through countryside paths, time spent by the sea, changing weather and fleeting moments of stillness are absorbed and stored as impressions. By the time painting begins, these experiences have already been filtered through memory, allowing intuition to guide the work rather than strict representation.
This instinctive approach gives her paintings their sense of movement and immediacy. Paint is applied confidently, often quickly, with palette knives and broad brushes creating surfaces that feel both physical and atmospheric. Layers are built, scraped back and rebuilt so colours interact and emerge naturally. Marks remain visible, preserving the decisions and energy within the painting rather than concealing them. Nothing is overworked. Instead, each piece retains a sense of openness, echoing the way memory itself is fluid and incomplete.
Seascapes form an important part of Baker’s practice. The coastline, shifting light and constantly moving water provide endless variation and emotional depth. Her seascapes often balance expansive skies with rhythmic marks suggesting tide and shoreline, evoking the sense of calm and perspective that comes with being beside the sea. Rather than describing exact places, these works capture the atmosphere of coastal experience, allowing viewers to connect them to their own memories of time spent by the water.
Alongside landscape and seascape painting, Baker has increasingly explored floral still life and hedgerow studies. These works bring the same interest in light and atmosphere into a more intimate scale. Gathered flowers and foliage become studies in colour relationships and seasonal change, painted with loose, expressive marks that mirror the energy of her landscapes. The result is still life work that feels alive rather than arranged, echoing the fleeting nature of blooms and the quiet beauty found in everyday moments.
White and Pink Camellias oil on canvas 90 × 90cm
Baker’s practice has developed alongside major personal changes, particularly motherhood, which has reshaped both her daily routine and her understanding of time. Early morning studio sessions have become essential moments of quiet before family life begins. This experience subtly informs her paintings, introducing moments of calm and pause within otherwise energetic compositions. Many works hold a sense of stillness at their core, even when built from bold colour and movement.
Alongside her own painting practice, Baker also runs Highgate Contemporary Art, giving her a dual perspective as both artist and gallerist. This experience shapes her understanding of how people live with art. Paintings are not conceived as isolated objects but as works that will eventually become part of someone’s home and daily life. She often speaks about wanting her paintings to live quietly in domestic spaces, gradually becoming part of the emotional rhythm of a household.
Collectors are drawn to the emotional accessibility of her work. Rather than dictating meaning, Baker leaves room for personal interpretation. A painting may remind one viewer of a childhood holiday, another of a familiar stretch of countryside, or simply evoke a feeling of calm and openness. This connection between artwork and lived experience sits at the heart of her practice.
Scale also plays an important role. Larger works allow colour and gesture to fully immerse the viewer, while smaller paintings offer moments of intimacy and quiet reflection. Regardless of size, her paintings share a consistent language built on movement, light and emotional resonance.
Looking ahead, Baker continues to expand her visual language while remaining rooted in the instinctive process that defines her work. Travel, changing landscapes and evolving personal experiences continue to feed into her practice, each painting becoming an attempt to hold onto fleeting moments of beauty and translate them into something lasting.
In an increasingly fast paced visual culture, Hannah Ivory Baker’s paintings offer something quieter: an invitation to pause, reflect and reconnect with places and feelings that often slip past unnoticed. Through colour, movement and atmosphere, her work reminds us that landscape and sea are not only things we see, but experiences we carry with us.