Jay E. Baptiste is a man who loves his work and his life. The Pittsfield resident is a successful decorative painter and restorer who did painstaking restoration work at the Thaddeus Clapp House, an upscale bed and breakfast that opened in the city last month.
Sitting in the living room of his exquisitely decorated apartment, Baptiste tells me about his 20-year career of painting and restoring, his paint-stained hands and pants evidence of that work. Baptiste, who is 44 but says, "I still feel like a kid," reveals that this is the first time he has been interviewed.
Having started his career as an antique restorer, Baptiste's plate now includes decorative painting on house interiors, restoration and gilding on furniture, wall finishing and glazing, mural installation, Venetian plastering, and grain painting, including wood graining, leather graining and marbleizing, especially of marbles that are not quarried anymore.
He also occasionally does trompe l'oeil paintings, which are paintings that create such a strong illusion of reality that the viewer may not at first be sure whether the things depicted are real or a representation. In this style, he has painted doors or windows and has done "sky ceilings" as well, which are ceilings with a painted image of the sky.
The large number of variables involved with decorative painting make it appealing to Baptiste. "It's an interesting field because its endless," he said. There are also a large number of variables involved with interiors and furniture, two things he loves, he said.
He spent his summer juggling work at the Clapp House and an apartment restoration project in Manhattan. At the Clapp House located on Wendell Avenue, he restored intricate, ornate designs on plaster ceilings. This restoration was challenging, he said, and included the making of molds. Despite the difficulty of the work, he said he enjoyed working at the Clapp House partly because it is a "historic building in Pittsfield." Noting his desire to "see Pittsfield turn around," he called the Clapp House "a stepping stone for Pittsfield."
Much of Baptiste's summer was spent living in Manhattan, which he said was great, as he worked on the apartment restoration. That project, which could possibly be featured in a national design magazine, began the second week of June and is presently concluding. A transformation from contemporary to more traditional, the apartment restoration involved woodgraining, the upholstery of walls, and restoration of ceramics and French furniture.
Baptiste has done jobs in Berkshire County, Connecticut and Manhattan but has never done any north of the county or in the Boston area. His jobs in the Berkshires — 80 percent of his total jobs — are almost all in South County, but has has done some in Pittsfield also. Of the jobs in the county, 99 percent of the homes are second homes.
He said there has been a great deal of work for him in Berkshire County over the last five years; it was different 10 years ago, he said.
The composition of his jobs has varied over the years. Four years ago, half of his jobs were decorative painting and half were restoration. Today 80 percent of his jobs are decorative painting, which is "much more lucrative," and 20 percent are restoration. The past couple of years, he has been "out of the shop" and doing more on-site work.
His jobs vary with the season, too. He does more furniture restoration during the winter and sometimes does two or three jobs at a time during the summer.
Baptiste was born in New Jersey, where he lived briefly. His family lived in Tacoma, Wash., until he was 5 years old and then moved to Hong Kong. Baptiste lived in that city, where his father was a vice president for Merrill Lynch, from the time he was in first grade to eighth grade. Then his family moved to the Berkshires, where he has lived in Pittsfield, Lenox, West Stockbridge and Washington Mountain. Baptiste has also spent five years of his adult life in St. Paul, Minn., and a couple of years in the Worcester area.
He said he has always been drawn to the arts but doesn't exactly know why, although he said elements of art and furnishings were part of his upbringing. Every member of his family is artistic in some way, he said. One of his sisters works in the fashion industry; the other is a fashion photographer. His brother, who works for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, loves art, and his father has done goldleafing work for much of his life and is currently redoing his house.
One of Baptiste's first memories of restoring something occurred when he was 15, and his father gave him an old mirror frame to strip and refinish. After high school he went on to study at the Isabel O'Neil Studios in New York City. He studied with the late O'Neil, whom he called a "very interesting woman."
He has learned different restoration and decorative painting skills over the years from different people. He learned how to do furniture touch-up, which he said is tougher than refinishing, from an "amazing guy" in Connecticut. Over the summer he attended a decorative painting show in Orlando where he learned "a completely new medium" for himself and one that commands high prices, Venetian plastering. He learned how to do casting and molding when he worked at a Worcester company that designs and manufactures all the bookends for the Barnes & Noble Corporation. He was mostly responsible for specialized finishes. Besides that job, he said all the jobs he has held over the years have been artistic and creative or have involved furnishings [furniture] in some way.
He has done customer service for a Levitz Furniture location in Minnesota and has worked with autistic children, doing art projects with them. He has also cooked at a restaurant. "I've always had my hands in the arts — somewhere," he said.
In the future Baptiste said he might branch out into retail and open a store with decoratively painted furniture, room dividers and screens.
But, as of late, he has been extremely busy and happy with the jobs he has been getting, the people he has been meeting, and the results he has been producing. "I love my life. I have a good life. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't doing this."
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Berkshire County Homes Celebrating Holiday Cheer
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
There's holiday cheer throughout the Berkshires this winter.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
We asked the homeowners questions on their decorations and why they like to light up their houses.
In Great Barrington, Matt Pevzner has decorated his house with many lights and even has a Facebook page dedicated to making sure others can see the holiday joy.
Located at 93 Brush Hill Road, there's more than 61,000 lights strewn across the yard decorating trees and reindeer and even a polar bear.
The Pevzner family started decorating in September by testing their hundreds of boxes of lights. He builds all of his own decorations like the star 10-foot star that shines done from 80-feet up, 10 10-foot trees, nine 5-foot trees, and even the sleigh, and more that he also uses a lift to make sure are perfect each year.
"I always decorated but I went big during COVID. I felt that people needed something positive and to bring joy and happiness to everyone," he wrote. "I strive to bring as much joy and happiness as I can during the holidays. I love it when I get a message about how much people enjoy it. I've received cards thanking me how much they enjoyed it and made them smile. That means a lot."
Pevzner starts thinking about next year's display immediately after they take it down after New Year's. He gets his ideas by asking on his Facebook page for people's favorite decorations. The Pevzner family encourages you to take a drive and see their decorations, which are lighted every night from 5 to 10.
In North Adams, the Wilson family decorates their house with fun inflatables and even a big Santa waving to those who pass by.
The Wilsons start decorating before Thanksgiving and started decorating once their daughter was born and have grown their decorations each year as she has grown. They love to decorate as they used to drive around to look at decorations when they were younger and hope to spread the same joy.
"I have always loved driving around looking at Christmas lights and decorations. It's incredible what people can achieve these days with their displays," they wrote.
The Wilsons' invite you to come and look at their display at 432 Church St. that's lit from 4:30 to 10:30 every night, though if it's really windy, the inflatables might not be up as the weather will be too harsh.
In Pittsfield, Travis and Shannon Dozier decorated their house for the first time this Christmas as they recently purchased their home on Faucett Lane. The two started decorating in November, and hope to bring joy to the community.
"If we put a smile on one child's face driving by, then our mission was accomplished," they said.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
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