The life and places Suzanne Baker painted were the life and places she had lived since early childhood, when her family located in the Sierra community of Three Rivers, California just outside Sequoia National Park. The cattle ranchers, horse packers, mountaineers and artists that composed the scant population of steep, high foothill country, were a fascination to her. The stories from the packers and mountaineers of such places as Black Rock Pass, Tyndall Creek, Forester Pass and scores of other places plus their tales of adventures created a life long pursuit of this Sierra Back country. Suzanne’s artist Mother encouraged her children to draw and paint and this became a popular family activity. Because Suzanne spent many years on horseback riding the high steep mountains surrounding her home, and as a teenager she worked as a packer and guide in the Park- it was natural for her to study Animal Science a Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo. There she met her husband Gordon. The Baker family always lived in the ranch country of Nevada and California- where they raised their three children Brett, Hoss, and Jenny. Suzanne's art training came from numerous college art courses and years of independent study.