Graeme Baxter Interview

Video details

• Instructor: Golf Life
• Category: Profiles

Transcript

Welcome back to Golf Life. We are so excited to welcome Graham Baxter onto the show. Graham, thank you so much for joining us here on Golf Life. Graham, you are a famous, famous golf artist. You have worked all over the world. How, how did you get started in golf? Where, where, tell me about your golf life to begin with. Well, that's very interesting. Uh, one time, uh, I mentioned to, uh, Jack Nicholas when we were doing an unveiling at, uh, Dallas Athletic Club. I said, Jack, you know, it was you that inspired me to start painting golf pictures. And I looked at him, we're up in the stage and we're doing an unveiling. I looked at him and he started shaking his head. But it was all these years ago that, uh, you know, I put golf and art together and, uh, I love golf, but my first love was art. And I just combined, uh, two of Scotland's, uh, favorite things, golf and, and art, you know. So I started in 1986 and here I'm 39 years later Now. Where are you from and, and how did you get to the place where you started to really get into doing golf courses and, and, and where did you do that? Well, I'm originally from, uh, Sterling area in Scotland, which is Central Scotland. Uh, I, I went to art school in Glasgow. I said to my father one day, I'm gonna paint a picture of a golf course. And he said, uh, what's a picture of a golf course? I said, I have no idea. I said, I just wanna do this painting of St. Andrews. And my father was friend with Michael Alack, then secretary of the RNA, and he took that, uh, painting over to Michael in St. Andrews. Michael said, I love it. What you gonna do with it? And my dad says, well, we thought we might do, uh, print. And he says, great idea. So that's when the, the business started, uh, 1986. And, you know, I've been painting golf pictures ever since. What is the process? Your, your paintings are what I find to be just absolutely realistic. Your lighting is very bright, generally, and just stand out so they really pop off the wall. What, what is your process and, and how do you arrive at just such amazing detail? Well, you, you mentioned light. Um, that's most important for me. I think everyone's happy is day in a golf course is when it's sunny. And I only ever take photographs in a golf course when there is sunshine. And what I do is I take photographs in the morning light, which is low, and you can see the undulations, right? And I take photographs in the evening, uh, late afternoon, evening light again. There's more color in the sky, more oranges, uh, and you can see the shapes of the fairways, the undulations in the green. And so I always do my photographs morning and evening, but I personally go to every golf course that I paint, uh, uh, 'cause it's not just a case of, uh, getting a photograph and doing a painting. I've got to know the course. I've got to see the, the design. I've gotta know who the designer is. All these things go into it. And you mentioned realism. What I'm doing when I do a painting is recording a piece of golf history. And that's an important thing for me. Think an a member said to me when I was Artist for the Open for 25 years, he said, you know what you've been doing? I said, yeah, painting the great course of the open. He said, no, you're recording golf history. And that was a eureka moment for me. And, uh, you know, I've always had that philosophy ever since. Tell our viewers, if you will, some of the great places that you've traveled and some of the great places you've been because you, you did start in Scotland, but you've, you've come abroad, you've been all over the United States. Just kind of describe some of the places that you've seen. Well, that's, that's very interesting. I've actually, uh, been fortunate enough to have been commissioned now by 64 of the world's top 100 clubs, uh, phenomen throughout the world. Yeah, I've painted over at Royal Melbourne, actually three times. One for the club and two President's Cup paintings. Um, I was artist of the President's Cup, and I did fan court in South Africa, um, Royal Montreal and Canada, and, uh, other amazing places. It also was commissioned by, uh, Dunlop Phoenix to do a number of, uh, paintings for them over a period of time for the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament, which is one of the major golf events in Japan. Uh, painted in China, Indonesia, Dubai. It was commissioned by Sheik Hamm Tomb to do three paintings of his courses. Uh, one is the Emirates Club and the other one is Dubai Creek. And, uh, so really, I've, I've just had the most amazing time. I've obviously painted Augusta and, uh, all the other great courses. Graham, let's do some quick, uh, answers here. Uh, what's your favorite course that you've ever painted? Very interesting. Uh, a lot of people would say, probably think I'd say Augusta or Pebble Beach, but to be honest, the most amazing place I've ever been is old Head in Ireland Old head. I've heard that so many times. So does that mean that the famous Peninsula Green, is that your favorite hole that you've ever painted? Or what would be your favorite hole? Favorite hole I've ever painted. I, I think my favorite hole I ever painted was, uh, the seventh Hole, an old sandwich in, in Massachusetts, which is just an mo amazing golf hole. Well, thanks so much again. I really appreciate it. And, uh, everybody head over to graham baxter.com. You'll be able to see his wonderful work. And that is Graham in the Scottish spelling as you see on the screen. And Graham, thank you, uh, for sharing, uh, just some of the insight that you bring with your wonderful art. Well, it's my pleasure and thank you very much, Michael.