James and Bethany, July 2008
In July of 2000, Bethany Kerr’s husband, James, told her that he had a dream. His dream was that Bethany would become an artist...James said it was his dream for Bethany to be in art shows all around the United States, and become known for her artwork. Up until that time, Bethany drew quite a lot, but she had never considered drawing seriously. It never occured to Bethany that she would ever get any better or make anything of the drawings. Bethany never even had any idea that people actually bought pencil drawings!
The next week, James went out and bought Bethany some pencils, a sketchpad, and an electric pencil sharpener. He brought them home and told Bethany to "Draw something."
Bethany's first drawing after James encouraged her to start drawing...July 2000
Bethany had some old National Geographic magazines in her house and decided to use them for inspiration. Her first drawing, one day after James started encouraging her, was of a bird on the front cover of one of the magazines (pictured on the left).
When James looked at this picture he thought it was wonderful and told Bethany to keep going.
Lucky for us, Bethany did just that! She practiced every day after that. After drawing many, many pictures of birds and other animals Bethany felt a yearning to do portraits of people. Bethany thought it would feel amazing to capture a person's personality and spirit on paper. Bethany was very nervous however, and felt she just could not capture the essence and personality of a face.
When she mentioned her feelings to James, he said "Well, keep trying...how can you know you can't unless you've tried?"
My first portrait, 2000—George Bush Sr.
So she did try and one day (in October of 2000), Bethany surprised herself when she was drawing a picture of George Bush Sr., and she actually recognized him in the drawing. Bethany was ecstatic! She finally realized that she COULD draw something that closely resembled what she was looking at! It wasn't just something she would have to go to college for (something she had previously thought)...she didn't need lessons...she could do this on her own!
Bethany devoted herself right then to portrait drawing and drew portrait after portrait. She sold her first drawing for $25.00 in April of 2001. People were beginning to compliment her work everywhere she showed it. Each new drawing became a lesson. Bethany learned something from each one she drew. By November 2001, the pictures were selling for as much as $125.00 a piece. Bethany was starting to realize that what she was doing did have some value after all!
1 more year of progress...in September of 2004 Bethany completed this drawing of three mules. She put it in the fair and it won best of show!
The next year Bethany entered this drawing of Bonnie praying and she won Best of Show again!
In 2004 Bethany decided to challenge herself further and try some decorative painting...she started using Donna Dewberry techniques, and progressed from there. Over the next two years, Bethany began painting murals at her church as well as throughout her house. Dinosaurs scavenge the walls of her son’s bedroom, a beautiful castle scene in her daughter’s room, an Asian theme in the living room, and an extremely impressive soda fountain scene in her kitchen.
Hopefully, over the years, Bethany will continue to improve her technique and continue reaching further. Bethany is so thankful that her husband had a dream for her to become an artist. He inspired her to do something that has become one of the most fulfilling experiences of her life.
Bethany loves to read comments from visitors to her site, so if you ever have the time, please drop a note in her guestbook to let her know you stopped by! Thank you so much!
Click here to see Article about Bethany’s artwork published in the Flatpicking Guitar magazine.
Click here to see an article published in the Cullman Tribune.
Click here to see an article published in the Cullman Times.
Click here to see short clip from a local TV interview (channel 2) from 2001 (requires Quicktime)...This is a short clip from a long interview Bethany had on a local TV show in 2001. The clip is not very clear.... Please excuse the poor quality.
Painting my first large mural in my church, February 2005
Click here to see second short clip from local TV interview (channel 2) from 2001 (requires Quicktime) ...Please excuse the poor quality in this video
Click below links to see short clips from TV interview from Dec 2005 (channel 2 again)
Bethany’s biggest inspiration in pencil art is Mike Sibley!
Please visit his site at www.sibleyfineart.com.
Copyright 2009, Bethany Kerr