Going Home - 10 in x 12 in - Oil on Canvas - 2005
Private Collection

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This is essentially my first painting. I painted a Christmas scene on my window with tempera when I was just a kid from Orange County and our neighbor thought my mom had 'hired it done!' I painted by number a couple of times. Once my Uncle Doug had my nephew and I paint a red fluted vase full of paint brushes. (I later figured out this was his way of 'baby sitting.') I painted the night sky and planets a couple of times. Once I painted a pair of intertwined Dolphins and gave it to my brother, Larry Beckett, who claims to still have it, somewhere. I painted some misty, craggy mountains and trees and gave it to my sister because she liked it. We lost her to multiple myeloma July 13, 2008. So truthfully, this is somewhere around my ninth painting since childhood. I started it about two weeks before my father's death March 22, 2005. I had some little tubes of those Shiva paints. My good friend David Travers, who had switched to Acrylics years earlier, brought me a bag of 'real' oils. About 25 tubes of paint, mostly full, some with the color names worn off, but all good paint - probably $300 to $400 dollars worth. I was pleased with my results and named this painting "Going Home" after my father's passing. We were sailing home on our 26 foot Zenta, into the light. My friend and mentor, Brita Holmquist said, "Well, you might as well start with the two most difficult things to paint, water and sky!"