Jeffrey Baisden

Jeffrey Smart Baisden was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, grew up in the Florida panhandle and graduated from Florida State University with a degree in art education.  Following a move to Live Oak, Florida in 1974 to teach high school art, she developed a fine arts program teaching grades 9-12, Advanced Placement and adult painting.  On weekends, Jeffrey exhibited her paintings and drawings in regional exhibitions. Discovering Prismacolor pencils in 1980 as a valuable teaching tool she began exploring the medium along with her students. These improved colored pencils offered the desired soft color and control of painting and they were portable. She resigned from public school in 1992 to devote full time to drawing, exhibitions and teaching workshops.

Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as twenty-six Colored Pencil Society of America International Exhibitions, receiving Awards of Excellence in 1996, 2001, 2007, 2016 and 2017. In 2003, she received the CPSA Exceptional Merit Award at the Explore This! Experimental Exhibition for the drawing “Night Watch”.   Her drawings are included in the series The Best of Colored Pencil 2, 3 and 4, Colored Pencil Explorations, CPSA Signature Showcase, Strokes of Genius 9, CP Treasures, American Artist Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, and the cover of Art Calendar magazine.

Jeffrey is a 20-year Signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America having been accepted in 26 international exhibitions. She has served as District Chapter Development Director for CPSA and a past president of CPSA District Chapter 113 - Gainesville.  She was selected to teach one of two national workshops at the CPSA Convention and Exhibition in Memphis, TN 2004 and in Bethesda, MD in 2017. She is an active member of the prestigious Florida Artists Group, the oldest professional art organization in Florida, winning awards in the annual exhibition in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2018 and 2019. She continues to teach colored pencil workshops and is a repeat instructor at John C. Campbell Folk School.