T.L. McBeth: Picture Books
October 25 – December 12, 2021
Monday – Friday, 11AM – 4PM
Receptions: Sunday, December 12, 1 – 2PM & 5:30 – 6:30PM
Exhibit and Reception are FREE and Open to the Public
Artist Statement
I’ve always been interested in art and illustration. From an early age I knew that I wanted to have some sort of career in the arts. I loved drawing, developing my own characters and bringing their stories to life. As a Findlay native, I spent countless hours at the Mazza Museum, immersed in a world of picture books, gleaning influence and inspiration from their vast collection of incredible art.
As I began my own illustration practice, I found a knack for digital tools and non-traditional ways of creating art. This would eventually lead to my current process of making picture books as a full-time, professional illustrator. Even though my style is simple and minimal, there’s a lot of unseen planning to get to the final art. The works shown here offer a glimpse of my process and a peek behind the scenes into how picture books are made.
Each book’s development is different, but often begins with a humble piece of copy paper and a pen. Instead of aiming for one perfect drawing, I often start with snippets and pieces of drawings, which I scan into the computer and reassemble to create a fully formed illustration. Working this way provides a lot of flexibility and room for experimentation. It allows me to focus on the book as a whole rather than obsessing over little details. It also allows me to focus on big picture things, like creating memorable characters and silly stories that I hope everyone can enjoy.
I’m grateful for the support that the community of Findlay was able to give me as a young artist. Without the encouragement of my family, my teachers, the Mazza and the other generous folks who took an interest in my art, I don’t think I would be where I am today. In the same way, I hope to encourage anyone with an interest in art to pursue it – I hope that seeing my work and my process will show other artists that you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to do your best and put yourself out there. All you need is an idea, a pen, some paper and persistence.
Artist Bio
T. L. McBeth was born in Findlay, Ohio. He studied illustration in college where he developed a love for expressive and minimal characters. In 2015, he moved to New York City to pursue an illustration career and he is currently lucky enough to illustrate picture books full time. He now lives in Bloomington, Indiana and enjoys working from his small home studio in the middle of nowhere. When he does leave the house, he likes to watch the dogs in the neighborhood dog park and visit bookstores for inspiration. His work has been featured by Macmillan, Scholastic, Threadless, McDonald’s, TODAY, The Wall Street Journal and displayed at the Society of Illustrators.
Upcoming Exhibits
Cassaundra Giles
December 17, 2021 - February 10, 2022
Raised in rural Ohio, Cassaundra Giles began painting over twenty years ago. Inspired by her high school art teacher Mrs. Garmon and fascinated by the work of Jackson Pollock, she developed her own unique style of abstract acrylic painting. The opportunity to travel gave her an even deeper appreciation of the visual world and an understanding of the human response to color.
After marrying her husband Andrew and starting a beautiful family, Cassaundra rediscovered her talent and became more intentional in her artistic practice. Painting with her young daughter has allowed her to explore new techniques and create with the fearlessness of a child.
Her work reflects the colors and beauty she sees in the natural world and conveys a sense of warmth, joy, and hope through her creative use of color and texture.
Ohio Watercolor Society’s 2021 Traveling Exhibit
February 14 - March 31, 2022
Open to Ohio residents, as well as members of Ohio art organizations living in neighboring states, this competitive juried exhibition is a showcase for the talent, diversity and energy of artists working in water soluble mediums: watercolor, acrylic, casein, gouache and egg tempera. Awards of cash and materials totaling thousands of dollars makes this one of the premier art exhibits in the State of Ohio.
Hancock County High School Students Advanced Art Show
April 4 - 26, 2022
Teresa Dunn
May 6 - June 29, 2022
Teresa Dunn is a Mexican American artist raised in rural Southern Illinois. Her identity, life, and art is poetically influenced by being suspended between two cultural heritages. Language, space, color, light, and storytelling find expressiveness through moving toward and away from simultaneously contradictory tensions. Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Borderlands” accurately reflects Dunn’s own reconciliation of her mexicansimo with her American-ness and the complexities of growing up and living as multicultural woman in the Midwest.
Clayton Pond
Summer 2022
Clayton Pond (b. 1941) was among the first artists to employ silkscreen printing in a fresh, distinctly personal way. His paintings and limited edition silkscreen prints are immediately recognizable for their bright, cheerful colors and their compositional balance. Over the span of his career, his work has revealed a fascination with vibrant color interactions, and the infinite possibilities that color relationships present. Deviating from the expected and rejecting the conventional, his particular use of color offers the viewer a charming, idiosyncratic interpretation of the world.
Pond’s subject matter ranges from immediate, domestic, and every-day surroundings to the outlandish, surreal, and fantastical, including his imagined perspective of outer space. His interpretations of the human condition evoke his unique sense of humor.
David Sapp, Drawings
September 6 - October 27, 2022
David Sapp, is an artist, writer and professor living near Lake Erie. He teaches studio art and art history and is director of the Little Gallery at Firelands College in Huron, Ohio. He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grant and was awarded an Akron Soul Train Fellowship. He creates graphite drawings and writes poetry and prose. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in art and psychology and a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing. He exhibits his art and publishes his writing in a number of venues across the United States, in Canada and the United Kingdom.