Craig Beman had never doodled, drawn, or dabbled in paint before turning 46.  But that turned out to be a big year for new beginnings for the former entrepreneur.  A little over a month after he and his wife, Peggy, decided to begin a full-time ministry, he picked up a pencil and started sketching.  When his wife saw the sophisticated results of his novice efforts, she encouraged him to nurture what they both immediately recognized as his God-given talent.

          It wasn’t long before others took note of Beman’s extraordinary abilities and advised him to pursue a career as an artist. “I went from pencil to mixed media to oils. I had been using a sharp pencil point, so the first time I picked up a brush it felt like I was painting with a house brush.” Now, in order to achieve the same immaculate precision in his oil paintings, Beman uses the finest tipped brushes available. “I don’t under paint. I sketch my image and then I use a O or a 2 filbert brush and dive into the detail.”  

          Beman considers himself to be a photo realist and enjoys the challenge of creating “a high-def image on canvas.” While the human eye cannot simultaneously focus on every aspect of a landscape, in a photo realistic painting, everything from the fence post in the foreground to the mountains in the background is crystal clear. Creating such a work requires a trained eye and a whole lot of patience. Beman’s lifelike paintings feature majestic Texas longhorns, exhilarating rodeo scenes, and exquisitely detailed saddles that look like they could be picked up and tossed over the back of a horse.  

      “The Lord keeps bringing me back to my roots,” Beman chuckles. “I grew up on a ranch in the Sand Hills of Nebraska and South Dakota.  In high school, I was a calf roper and a cutter.” Then, in college, his life took an interesting detour. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a major in Economics and went on to a successful career in the food service industry.  Beman next decided to follow a higher calling and pursue the ministry.                    

“I was compelled to spread the gospel,” he says.   In addition to opening an art gallery with his wife in Stephenville, Texas, Beman also runs Healing Promises Ministries, which provides support for pastors and their families.  He donates the net proceeds from the sale of his paintings to the nonprofit organization.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          —–Amy Pallas