Written by Mary Burruss.
Bev Perdue likes to keep learning and growing as an artist. She is the only painter in the Richmond Metropolitan Area who has a Signature Membership American Watercolor Society, she is also part of Chuck Larivey’s Swimming-in-Paint group. She gets super charged about her work on the board of Art for the Journey, teaching and taking care of her pet koi.
Through Art for the Journey she leads a small class at the Women’s Correctional Center in Goochland. “It’s important for you to paint what you want to paint otherwise it shows up in the painting,” she says. “When I teach I coach. I will show them ways you can correct a painting, but I don’t tell them what to paint or how to paint.”
Among the subjects Perdue likes to paint are her pet koi. She has an impressive 18 by 8 foot pond with waterfall in her backyard where she keeps 15 to 20 koi. “I am a koi whisperer,” she explains. “I have trained them to come and eat out of my hand and pet them.” The largest koi in her pond is a 2 foot long 25+ year old fish named Ranger for the black markings that go over her eyes like the mask of the Lone Ranger. “She is queen of the pond for sure,” says Perdue.
In terms of her own growth as a painter, in the last six years she has moved away from watercolors to oils. Perdue says, “Sometimes people get stuck in a rut because a certain style is selling. I hope I am still growing. I hope I haven’t painted my best painting yet.”
We are looking forward to seeing how her paintings evolve.