About Me

Hi… thanks for visiting! My name is Michael Beckett. I live in Calgary Alberta Canada.

I’ve always been interested in art but never followed up as a career as I’m partially red-green color blind. In 2004, I decided to take the plunge anyway and working with the book ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards, taught myself to draw. As I progressed, I moved from black and white (graphite and charcoal) to earth tones (conte) to limited color (mainly colored conte). I also threw some figure drawing from life into the mix. There I learned to work quickly. No more lolly gagging… get the drawing on paper before the time is up! In the last year or two, I’ve been learning to handle a paint brush (some watercolor, but mostly acrylic), and ultimately learn to manage color with limited color vision. I’m proud of the journey I’ve taken, and my artistic accomplishments, and excited to continue traveling this road. I never thought I would be able to create art like I have, and have learned a lot about myself in the process... and learned to never say ‘never’! As well as painting and drawing, I am also an avid photographer. Several of the paintings here are based on photos I have taken over the years. Another source of photo references I use is on the Wet Canvas Art Forum. There is a painting and drawing challenge that occurs every weekend that is known as the WDE (Weekend Drawing Challenge). Artists take turn as hosts and supply 16 images every weekend for participants to paint or draw, then post for everyone to see. It's a lot of fun and if you're an artist, definitely worth participating. I've learned a lot and met a lot of great people there! Mike