Jack Beal (1931 - )

  An abstract expressionist and figurative painter, Jack Beal was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1931. As a young child he was often ill with ear infections and to take his mind off the pain his mother encouraged him to draw. Although his drawing talent set him apart from his peers, Beal might never have become an artist if a professor at the College of William and Mary had not changed his life by telling him to leave school and go to The Art Institute of Chicago. Beal followed this advice, studying for three years at The School of the Art Institute, where he learned to paint in the Abstract Expressionist style.

Eventually Beal began to move toward figuration in his work and is now
considered "a realist's realist." "The trouble is," he says, "I have never
been able to achieve the level of naturalism I would like." His heroes in the
realm of realism are the 17th-century Dutch painters. "They seem to have
painted just as naturally as we eat or drink. There is a quality of
believability in those paintings." Beal also greatly admires Renaissance
art.