Jose Baray Ramirez is the oldest and most experienced paintermuralist of the colony. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico UNAM in 1969. Baray founded the Street Artists Guild in Mexico City while attending the university. He toured the United States and Canada from the late 1960s and into the 1980s, exhibiting his work and becoming wellknown in art circles. Befriended by American painter Georgia OKeeffe, Baray designed the famous garden and laid its flagstone at her Ghost Ranch home near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Her influence can be seen in some of his paintings and murals. His home and studio sit alongside the Copper Canyon train stop in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua. His neighbors include Mennonite farmers and Tarahumara Indians. He brought his talent and mastery of painting to the Copper Canyon area and shares what he has learned with other artists in the colony. Baray works mostly with acrylic paints, and his paintings tend to be large and on canvas or wood.

Website: http://www.mexicoarts.com/