After decades of doodling and dabbling, Beaven began to take art a little more seriously after retiring from a career in psychiatric nursing. As she took various art classes and workshops, an announcement about a sumi-e class caught her eye. Not knowing what sumi-e was, she was intrigued and signed up for a class with Keiko Von Holt in January of 2011.
“When I discovered that the focus of sumi-e is to capture the essence of your subject in as few strokes as possible using only ink, I realized that this was the art form I had been searching for. Sumi-e often focuses on the natural world around us and since I have been a life long observer of nature, this was another reason it was a good fit for me. I find that plants and animals are my favorite subjects to paint, sometimes seriously, and sometimes with a little quirkiness.”
Since that first class in 2011, she has shown her paintings at various venues: a local restaurant, a wine cellar, the Kress Gallery several times, and twice at the Sumi-e Society of America’s annual national exhibit in Washington D.C. and Mobile, Alabama.