Natalie Baker studied painting with Yasuo Kuniyoshi and, portraiture specifically, with Raphael Soyer. "Young Ruth" won a prize in 1941 at the Richmond, VA Museum of Art.
In the 1940s Natalie Baker wrote articles on art for PIC Magazine which, at that time, was very heavily supportive of the war on the homefront. She also wrote radio scripts on art history for NBC radio.