Barbara Beamer is a retired art teacher who hopes her students β and everyone in general β continue to be inspired.
βKeep exposing yourself to art and ideas,β sheβd tell her students.
Beamer first started painting at the age of 3 β a newspaper even published a photo of her painting on an easel at her Detroit nursery school. She went on to take classes at the Detroit Art Institute as a high schooler.
She eventually got her degree in painting at the University of Michigan and studied watercolor painting in Italy and Greece over the course of two summers.
In the late 1970s, Beamer moved to Tucson where she taught art at Pueblo High School for 25 years β and a year at an all-boys school in London sandwiched in between.
βThe kids at Pueblo love art β they just want to get right into it,β she says.
Beamer says her favorite part of teaching was helping students gain a new perspective.
βTheyβre so bombarded with mass media and you want to try to show them that thereβs more,β she says. βI would try and get them to see different ways of working.β
Sheβd later hear her students say they wish they had taken more art classes.
βTheyβre only allowed to take so many electives, so obviously they have to choose,β Beamer says. βI would refer them to Parks and Rec, Pima Community College β you can explore private lessons, you can do all kinds of things.β
βI would just hope that people would ask for advice from artists theyβre impressed with,β she says.
Although Beamer retired from teaching in 2003, she continues to paint.
βWhat I do is sometimes work directly from nature, like working outside in plein air β drawing and then painting,β she says. βI also work with photos β because I canβt stop on the side of Mount Lemmon without getting smashed by cars, so Iβll jump out of the car and take a picture.β
βIβve always been interested in color and texture,β she says. βYou see that, of course, in nature.β
Beamer previously worked in watercolor β though sheβs not totally done with that medium and is currently a member of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild. Most recently, sheβs been getting into acrylic paints. βI stumbled upon these acrylics in my closet,β she says. βI said, βI gotta use these before they dry out,β so it was like a media inspiration.β
Beamer describes her paintings as abstract and nonobjective.
βItβs based on reality, but I like to alter reality and play with the shapes, the surface, the colors,β she says.