Figure with a Still Life is an example of an ongoing interest for the artist: combining the various genres of painting — in this case the figure and still life. An iconic nude is depicted from behind, seated in an interior with an expansive still life that occupies various depths of space. Fruits and flowers are prominently featured, both of which are themselves evocative of the sensuousness of the human form.

Close examination of the surface reveals evidence of multiple revisions, another characteristic of Baird’s work. The image has developed over time — objects are moved or replaced, subverting any attempt to preserve a single moment in time. This persistent reworking speaks to the representational painter’s perennial problem: the translation of perceptual experience into pictorial representation. In this conversion, the portrayal of the visible world is in constant tension with the materiality of the paint and the flatness of the surface. Any pretense of fidelity to the visual experience is inevitably betrayed by the artifice of painting. Resolving this tension between the object of perception and the fiction of representation becomes, in a sense, the subject of every work.

David Baird began studying painting in 2006 at the Ryder Studio, followed by other notable schools, including the Janus Collaborative and the Jerusalem Studio School. He currently serves as a faculty member at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut.