After the outbreak of war, deported to a labour camp in Siberia, he enlisted in the Polish Armed Forces after the declaration of amnesty. He fought in the 2nd Corps in Italy. Getting to know the painter-soldiers serving in the Andres army turned Baran towards painting. He began his art studies in Italy and continued his studies in the evening after moving to England. Baran arrived in Canada in 1949. An encounter with Christa Stefanoff, a painter of Bulgarian origin, convinced him to devote himself to painting. Baran exhibited his works in Hollywood, St. Francisco, San Diego, Nassau Art Gallery; he participated in group exhibitions in Canada: in Sherbrooke, Drummondville, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. In 1965, in an exhibition at the Wallack Gallery in Ottawa, Baran showed 30 works, mainly with maritime themes. In 1974, in Montreal, the Ladies' Circle at St Adalbert's Mission organised an exhibition of four painters: Anna Batory, Zbigniew Suchodolski, Elżbieta Tyszkiewicz and Bolesław Baran. Dynamic depictions of sea waves and dramatic views of the sky - this motif has become the painter's speciality - as well as woods, northern landscapes and flowers. Baran lives in the district of Chomedey in Laval, Quebec, Canada.