Best of Butler County: Best Artist Brian Beck of Hamilton learned from his father’s home studio

Like father. Like son.

Brian said his father, David Michael Beck, taught him drawing exercises, and they worked together on art projects.

“I absorbed it all in,” he said.

Now 37 years old, Beck is an accomplished artist who was named Best Artist in this year’s Best of Butler County contest.

Winning the award was “amazing,” he said, and “it makes me feel like I’m doing something right.”

It hasn’t been an easy road for Beck.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

He put down his paint brushes for about 10 years and became a lead technician at an eye doctor when he couldn’t see himself making a living as an artist.

Then a friend convinced him to travel to Seattle for a mural job. That one job led to other freelance opportunities.

He described his career then as having “good years, bad years.”

They’re called “starving artists” for a reason.

When he sells an art piece, it “pushes you to do better and get back into the studio and do it again,” he said.

He eventually earned a scholarship to the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he earned a bachelor’s degree in illustrations and fine arts.

Suddenly, Beck finds himself very busy, either painting murals or giving back to the community.

He’s working on a mural on the side of the Calabria Pizza building in Hamilton, and plans to complete a massive 400-foot mural near the Eastgate Mall.

Every Monday from 3-10 p.m., Beck, a Hamilton resident, hosts an event at Municipal Brew Works for artists to share their talents.

He also teaches an art therapy course part-time at the Warren County Juvenile Detention Center in Lebanon.

The goal, he said, is to get the teens “back into their community and school.”

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Now with a 5-month-old daughter, Beck, a single parent, remembers back to the days when he was thinking about following in his father’s footsteps.

“It has come full circle,” he said.

Beck’s father said he never pushed his two children, Brian and Anna, to enter the art or music business, his two loves.

Painting was just part of Brian’s DNA.

“He was always around it,” his 74-year-old father said.

When Beck sees his son’s work, it’s like “a free spirit has been cut loose. It’s very emotional and spontaneous.”