Jean Baczuk was born in Los Angeles and after ten years moved with her family to Seattle, Virginia, and finally settled in Colorado, where she attended high school and graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Mass Media Communications.

She is an award-winning classical realist, primarily self-taught, having spent many hours studying the techniques of artists she admires. Her work shows an affinity for simple compositions, dramatically lit by a single light source. Her paintings are often mistaken for photographs.

She lives on the beautiful Central Coast of California with her husband, writer Dennis P. Taylor, their three dogs and Stanley, the cockatiel.