- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- January 2007
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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For All
Seasons
Realist painter Kevin Beck of
Blowing Rock ventures outdoors
to find inspiration in the form of trees,
barns, mountains, and lakes.
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Kevin Beck- If a title were placed on Beck’s
dedication to hie art. it would have to be:
hollowing .1 Lifelong Pjhioh.
“It's an absolute pas being a grown man getting
away with Ipainting foe a livmg|," cave the 55-year-old
Beck. He’s seated in a chair in the Upstairs Gallery on
Main Street in Blowing Rock, which he owns with his
wife. Jodi. The I.SOO-squarc-foot shop features Beck’s
original oil and pastel paintings, along with the work
of eight other full time artists.
Beck is a realist painter who concentrates on
landscapes. He’s also a plein air painter, which means
■open air.” "It sounds sexier to say plein air because
it’s in French.” Beck says with a smile. "Most of
the work I do is on location. I’ve painted all over
the United States. Mexico. New Zealand, and the
mountains of Panama. Mountains have always
been one of my favorite painting spots.”
He says some people will stop when they spot him
working in a field, putting paint to canvas. “They'll
say. ‘Why isn't that man working?’ And I say. ‘I am
working. I just happen to like what I do.' ” says
Beck, who has silver hair pulled into a ponytail,
a neatly trimmed goatee, and striking brown eves.
“All I want to do is paint. You would think I'd
satisfy that urge and want to do other things.
But I just want to paint. “
Early inspiration
Beck was eight years old when he took his first
oil and pastel classes at the Canton Art Institute
in his home state of Ohio. He calls the experience
-marvelous." as he remembers working under the
tutelage «if local artists and professors from Kent
State University and the Cleveland Institute of Art.
He studied art at Bowling Green Stale University
in Bowling Green. Ohio, but it wasn't his major.
“At the time I didn't conceive of nuking a living as
an artist." says Beck. He met his wife. Judi. while
they were both students at Bowling Green and
married when he was 21. “We’re blessed to still
be together." he says. “That’s what comes with
marrying my best friend. She's my soul mate.”
While he enjoyed a successful early career as a
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