ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Following the birth of her first son in 2008, Jennifer Baffoe started painting prolifically, but artworks became more frequent when she started raising funds in the country of Ghana in West Africa.
“I’d sell my paintings to raise money for a school in west Africa, and I just keep learning and growing,” she said. “I’ve traveled all over.”
Baffoe said most of her artwork is based on travels from the places she sees to the people she meets and things she finds beautiful and interesting.
“I love landscapes with really great light,” she said. “I love skies. I love painting portraits of interesting people, not necessarily the most beautiful people, but interesting faces and interesting stories. You will see a piece of my journey in every painting.”
Now living in Hugoton, Baffoe said she has been into art since childhood, but it was the TV show “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross” that particularly sparked her excitement for painting.
“I only had a couple channels on television when I had my first kid, and I watched Bob Ross relentlessly,” she said. “I said I think I’m going to start painting just for fun, and it blossomed from there. I don’t necessarily paint in his style anymore. However, it really ignited a passion in me.”
Mostly self-taught, Baffoe paints mostly with oil, dabbling in acrylic art from time to time, and for her, painting is an outlet.
“I use a lot of my art to express not only the beautiful things I paint, but there’s always a piece of me and what I’ve been going through in my life in the art I have,” she said. “Sometimes when you’ve got big feelings, you’ve got to put it on the canvas and work through it as you’re painting.”
Baffoe also loves taking classes when she can to enhance her skills.
“While in Washington, I painted wekly with a group of women who just loved spending time together,” she said. “I learned so much from them.”
An exhibit of some of Baffoe’s artwork has been on display during September at Liberal’s Baker Arts Center, and she said many of the works in the exhibit are of desert landscapes from her travels in Morocco.
“I have a vast love for the light and the shadow that is cast on the sand dunes, hits the water and bounces around in warm tones and cool tones,” she said. “I also have some landscapes from when I lived in Washington. I have flowers I used to see and places in Morocco I used to travel with my former sister-in-law.”
The Baker exhibit is the third of four showings Baffoe has scheduled for 2025, and she estimated four showings a year is her average. Baker hosted an artist reception for Baffoe Saturday, and the exhibit will be up through Tuesday for people to see.
Baffoe has been exhibiting her art since 2016 in places from her home state of South Dakota to Washington to Kansas, and she said her works continue to grow wherever she goes.
In Washington, Baffoe exhibited her art at the Vancouver Art Studio and won two People’s Choice Awards. In 2024, she participated in the Banner Art Project in Garden City, the Smokey Hill Art Exposition and the Stations of the Cross exhibit at Baker Arts. She likewise has shown her works in Dodge City, Ulysses and Greensburg.
Baffoe said she loves showing her artwork for the communities she exhibits in to come and see.
“They get to see an inner part of me,” she said. “If you don’t know me, this is a good way to see who I am. If you want to get out and have a little experience you might not have otherwise and see somebody else’s life, it’s a great way to travel without traveling.”
