Kenneth Bischoff Baxter was born in San Diego, California in 1944. He is known as a plein-air landscape painter and as a painter-teacher who instructed many art students and painters. He lives in Salt Lake City. Baxter earned a BFA from the University of Utah where Alvin Gittins, a portraitist, and Frank Ericson, a landscapist, were his mentors. He later earned an MFA from Utah State University. Baxter began his professional career as a traditional-realist known for his paintings of the historical reconstructions of downtown Salt Lake City. His works reveal his talent for composition and brushwork. After being influenced by LeConte Stewart, he began to paint his immediate outdoor environment. As founder of the plein-air school in Utah, Baxter influenced the aesthetic lives of many Utah artists.