Western Artist Richard Baker paints Portrait of Steve McQueen
McQueen Friend: Portrait was ‘a labor of love’.
By Karen Despain
The Daily Courlier
For years, western artist Rich Baker thought about painting an oil portrait of the late actor Steve McQueen as a tribute to his special friend.
The two had first met when Baker was the art director for Modern Cycle magazine and worked on a story about McQueen’s motorcycle racing in England’s Isle of Man.
“Steve said for me to get a motorcycle and we’d go racing,” he said, and through the 1960’s and 1970’s, they would get together i the California desert, race their motorcycles, then click back on the tailgate of a pickup truck and have a beer.
“He really loved racing,” Baker said of his cycling partner. “He was very happy when he was away from movies. He could get away from the pressure,” and was relieved when people didn’t recognize him and swarm him for his autograph.
Over time Baker held onto his dream of painting a portrait of McQueen, and as he sketched his visions, he tacked them on a wall in his studio.
“I always talked about wanting to do a tribute to him. Two years ago, I got hot on it and did it, he said.”
“I try to do a story in every painting,” Baker said. The oil painting that pays homage to his friend depicts McQueen with ornery Sunshine, the bull that Junior Bonner is determined to get on again in the Prescott Rodeo after a nasty encounter with him on another ride. “It’s a nice composition of them together,” he said, noting that he’s seen the “Junior Bonner” movie “many times” and visited with Steve to the end.”
“It was a labor of love,” Baker said, and the portrait of the famous star has won the praises of the actor’s widow, Barbara, who said, “It reveals in his face a true sense of kindness and joy. I know it (Junior Bonner) was a role Steve enjoyed very much because he’s got to play an American cowboy. It makes me feel good that so many people like Rich still remember and respect Steve. He was worthy of such respect, too, as he was a good guy and a real man.”
Baker has deep Arizona roots. His Uncle Bob was a rodeo team roper and ran a lot of cattle close to the Mexico border. He taught his nephew how to rope and tend livestock. Baker once worked among the Apache Indians in Globe, but a career as an artist would be his destiny. In grade school, he discovered his passion for art, and a teacher encouraged him in that direction, along with his mother, herself a wildlife artist.
After a tour of duty with the U.S Army in Germany, Baker attended the Universally of Arizona on a scholarship. Tucson, at the time, offered him little opportunity for jobs, so he regretfully left to pursue a career in commercial art and advertising in Los Angles. Today, though he maintains two studios - one in Tuscon and the other in southern California as a full-time artist.
He will be on hand at the 40th reunion marking the shooting of “Junior Bonner” in Prescott, with canvas reproductions of his McQueen painting. To learn more about Baker and his art, visit his art gallery on www.richardbakerwesternart.com. You can Richard at 949-813-4907, or email him at rbwesternart@gmail.com
