By Jonathan Burger, Craven Arts Council & Gallery, Inc.
Where are you from and how’d you end up in eastern North Carolina?
In 1961, my father’s Air Force career landed our family at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, NC. After graduating from high school here, I left for 37 years to pursue a college education and a graphic arts career.
Do you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
I began my first oil paintings during private art lessons in the Philippines when I was nine years old. After high school, I attended Virginia Commonwealth University where I earned a B.F.A. in Communication Arts (1970); in 1992, I earned my M.F.A. in Advertising Design at Syracuse University.
Is there a central theme to your work, or several themes?
Mostly I paint the people and places around me.
You work in several mediums, do you have a favorite, and why or why not?
I work in both watercolors and oils. When light becomes part of my subject, I prefer to work in oils. When it is subject matter that is the primary focus of my work, I may prefer watercolors.
You did a really unique COVID-19 series, can you talk about what inspired that and the works in it?
Thank you. I was exposed to someone diagnosed with Covid in early 2021. This led me to quarantine myself for fourteen days. I find no better way to be alone than to paint. I decided to do a [watercolor] painting a day for the days I was quarantined. I finished the series only after I had painted nineteen of them.
Is there another artist who work inspires you or you admire?
I love the work of John Singer Sargent. There is no bigger fan of Sargent’s than the artist I consider my portrait mentor, Michael Shane Neal of Nashville, TN. Of the living painters I am familiar with, I recently ran across the plein air work of artist Rick J. Delanty of California. I would love to take a plein air workshop with him.
Do you have any advice for artists just starting out?
Never underestimate the power of education. Practice, practice, practice.
What artwork, exhibition, or award are you particularly proud of, and why?
I consider it by far the greatest honor I have ever received to have been asked by the University in 2008 to paint four watercolors depicting places on campus that were gifted at graduation that year by UNC Chapel Hill to the parents of Eve Marie Carson, the former Student Body President who was tragically murdered earlier that year.
In one sentence, what is art to you?
Art is my life, my best friend; my security.
I know you’ll be having an exhibition at Bank of the Arts, but where else can people find your work?
On my website at www.brendabehr.com or at weddingwatercolors.com. My studio in Goldsboro, NC, The O’Brien Gallery in Greensboro, NC, Carolina Creations in New Bern, or in the art market of Community Council for the Arts in Kinston.