Draughtsman, painter and printmaker, Robert James Baxter was born on 30 November 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received his B.S. in art in 1956, and both his M.S. in painting and his M.F.A. in painting in 1960 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Baxter also studied with Aaron Bohrod and John Wilde. He relocated to San Diego, California in the early 1960s and began teaching at San Diego State University in 1962. In 1969, Baxter went to Rome on sabbatical and decided to remain in Italy, living there for a number of years. He eventually returned to Southern California and was Professor of Art at San Diego State University until 1973. As a printmaker, Baxter worked with the Workshop of Ernest F. de Soto and Editions Press, both located in San Francisco. Baxter was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in 1972, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants in 2000 and 2005.
