Oleda Baker: Artist, Model, Author, Entrepreneur
MODEL: Oleda Baker began her career over fifty years ago with the Wilhelmina Model Agency (New York City) as a high fashion model in TV and print ads in the USA and overseas. Today, she still models for charity at special events and in her own company’s ads.
ARTIST: When Oleda was thirty-eight, although she had never had an artist’s brush in her hand or a lesson in art or painting, she strode into an art store in New York City one day and purchased whatever supplies the sales people told her she needed, and tried her hand at putting her feelings on canvas. It was the realization of a long-held desire.
Since then Oleda’s visionary oil paintings have hung in galleries and halls around the country, including two extensive exhibitions in the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas, and the Museum of Florida Art, Deland, Florida.
FOUNDER & C.E.O: Oleda founded Oleda and Company, Inc., forty-three years ago - overseeing the development of over 100 Anti-Aging OLEDA brand products such as creams, lotions, and vitamin supplements for skin, hair, nails, and nutrition, including make-up and weight-loss. She is still the spokes person at 81 in the photo above. www.oleda.com
AUTHOR: Oleda has authored ten books on beauty and health and one novel published by major publishers.
Artist Statement
When I stand before a blank canvas, I feel as if I'm in a cocoon, lost. with visions to be released only as my fantasies take shape in the oil. Sometimes I feel I'm inside the picture, painting the scene around me, expressing my feelings and fantasies about flowers , trees, birds, animals, peace, femininity, love, nature and people. My mind races at every brush stroke, making decisions.... every single leaf is important.... my emotions surge.
It is difficult to let a painting go. But I have come to understand that, if someone takes my art into their home, the life I've given to my dream is shared and thereby expanded. After viewing my gallery if you have any questions please don't hesitate to send a note.
Love, Oleda