My mother, Barbara Baker, who has died aged 89, drew and painted throughout her life, in watercolours, pastel, charcoal and pencil. In her portraits she demonstrated a rare sensibility for colour, evidenced by her use of coloured papers, idiosyncratic composition and a focus on the patterns and textures of the garments worn by her subjects.
Barbara was born in Kersal, north Salford, Greater Manchester, to Josephine (nee Kalis) and Alec Baker, a furniture manufacturer. She was the identical twin of the British social documentary photographer Shirley Baker.
The family moved to Manchester when the girls were two. Later they boarded at Penrhos girls’ school in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, from which they were evacuated during the second world war to Chatsworth in Derbyshire.
She went on to study fashion design and fine art at Manchester School of Art (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and graduated in 1953. Three years later she married David Winter, owner of Winter’s the Jewellers in Stockport. In 1964 I was born, and after the marriage ended in divorce, in 1971 she married Dennis Btesh, with whom she had another daughter, Alexandra.
During the next 14 years Barbara lived in Cheshire, while also spending much of her time in second homes in north Wales and the south of France. While we grew up, she painted in her studio, on her travels, and at life drawing classes in Manchester, creating abstract landscapes of England, Scotland, Wales and France and still life works on paper, portraits and life drawings.
A 20-year period of exhibitions began with her first solo exhibition at Tib Lane gallery, Manchester, in 1986. Other solo shows followed in 1987 at the R&A gallery, Alderley Edge, the Hurlingham gallery, London, then at The Riverside gallery, London, in 1989 and back at the Tib Lane gallery in 1989 and 1992. Her work was also included in several group exhibitions.
Barbara continued painting at her home studio until her late 70s. In 2007, aged 75, she presented her work in an in-house exhibition at her home in Alderley Edge.
Aside from her painting, she was a qualified swimming teacher, and from the 1960s onwards gave swimming lessons to children, including at Victoria Baths in Manchester and at the Royal School for the Deaf in Cheadle, as well as privately at clients’ homes in Cheshire and France. She continued to do so until well into her 80s.
Barbara had real strength of character, great compassion, an excellent sense of humour and a profound curiosity about people and places.
Dennis died in January 2021. She is survived by me and Alexandra, Dennis’s two children, Olivia and Richard, from his previous marriage, and grandchildren Aurelia and Linus.
