Barbara Beamer is a retired art teacher who hopes her students 鈥 and everyone in general 鈥 continue to be inspired.
鈥淜eep exposing yourself to art and ideas,鈥 she鈥檇 tell her students.
Beamer first started painting at the age of 3 鈥 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.
Barbara Beamer titled this acrylic painting 鈥淲aiting,鈥 referencing 蜜柚直播鈥檚 drought and lack of monsoon.
In the late 1970s, Beamer moved to 蜜柚直播 where she taught art at Pueblo High School for 25 years 鈥 and a year at an all-boys school in London sandwiched in between.
鈥淭he kids at Pueblo love art 鈥 they just want to get right into it,鈥 she says.
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Beamer says her favorite part of teaching was helping students gain a new perspective.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e so bombarded with mass media and you want to try to show them that there鈥檚 more,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 would try and get them to see different ways of working.鈥
She鈥檇 later hear her students say they wish they had taken more art classes.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e only allowed to take so many electives, so obviously they have to choose,鈥 Beamer says. 鈥淚 would refer them to Parks and Rec, Pima Community College 鈥 you can explore private lessons, you can do all kinds of things.鈥
This watercolor painting is meant to portray a garden at Hacienda Del Sol.
鈥淚 would just hope that people would ask for advice from artists they鈥檙e impressed with,鈥 she says.
Although Beamer retired from teaching in 2003, she continues to paint.
鈥淲hat I do is sometimes work directly from nature, like working outside in plein air 鈥 drawing and then painting,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 also work with photos 鈥 because I can鈥檛 stop on the side of Mount Lemmon without getting smashed by cars, so I鈥檒l jump out of the car and take a picture.鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in color and texture,鈥 she says. 鈥淵ou see that, of course, in nature.鈥
This painting references picnic areas on Mount Lemmon, 鈥減roduced to ease my husband鈥檚 restlessness this summer during the fires,鈥 says Barbara Beamer.
Beamer previously worked in watercolor 鈥 though she鈥檚 not totally done with that medium and is currently a member of the Southern 蜜柚直播 Watercolor Guild. Most recently, she鈥檚 been getting into acrylic paints. 鈥淚 stumbled upon these acrylics in my closet,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 said, 鈥業 gotta use these before they dry out,鈥 so it was like a media inspiration.鈥
Beamer describes her paintings as abstract and nonobjective.
鈥淚t鈥檚 based on reality, but I like to alter reality and play with the shapes, the surface, the colors,鈥 she says.
Contact reporter Gloria Knott at gknott@tucson.com or 573-4235. On Twitter: @gloriaeknott
Gloria Knott
#ThisIs蜜柚直播 Editor
