Artist Louis Beck learns it is never too late to follow a dream

Published: December 3, 2011

By Aprille Hanson
Little Rock Correspondent

Aprille Hanson

Artist Louis Beck describes the most expensive piece in his art gallery, a 5-foot-by-4-foot, 150-pound wood carving of the Last Supper, priced at $30,000. He worked on the carving periodically for a little more than 20 years.

Aprille Hanson

Artist Louis Beck will admit no painting is perfect, but said the closest he's painted would be the portrait of his wife Lottie, who died in February 2010.

"About March (2010), I thought I'd paint her portrait," Beck said. "I found such a satisfaction in painting and it really kind of gave me piece of mind."

As his inner artist was reawakened, so was an old dream the couple shared -- owning a gallery.

The same year, Beck renovated a building he owned into what is now L & L Beck Art Gallery at 5705 Kavanaugh Boulevard in Little Rock.

"It's as much of an ego trip as it is a business," Beck said. "I'm very proud and I know my wife would have been proud to say, 'We have a gallery.'"

Beck, 80, graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1953 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.

"I had a certain amount of (artistic) ability, but it was nothing I really pursued," Beck said.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Beck gave away his art to friends and family on special occasions.

It wasn't until his gallery opened in December 2010 that Beck said he became serious about displaying and selling his art. In addition to art, Beck owns and operates St. Jude Packaging.

John Stroud, the gallery's curator, said the gallery holds about 45 paintings and woodcarvings. Beck has a little more than 200 pieces of artwork total, including portraits and landscapes.

"I try to paint every day at least an hour … and all weekend," Beck said. "I'm depressed if I don't have a painting working."

Each month, the gallery hosts a different theme, from ducks to golf, and December will feature about 20 religious paintings.

The paintings will be a "potpourri of religious art," including St. Joseph tending to the baby Jesus and the Sacred Heart, Beck said. A 2010 painting titled "St. Anne teaching Mary," depicts the two playing in a 21st-century pose, with a 16th-century background, Beck said.

"I just think that people today with religious art should see religious art as what it would look like today," Beck said.

Beck said religious art has been a way for him to be more involved as a parishioner of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church, In August he donated paintings of Blessed John Paul II and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to the Taste of Faith vocations fundraiser, a cause he said he plans to donate to again.

"I depend on God for my artistic ability. He's the one who gave it to me," Beck said. "But I had to recognize it was a gift and do something with it."

Though business has been slow, Beck said a few of his paintings have found a way to the right home, including a painting of Mother Teresa that now hangs at the Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center's chapel in Little Rock.

Lydia Antonetz, who volunteers at the center, said she first saw the painting while window shopping after a pro-life conference in August. Though she was drawn to Beck's religious artwork, the painting cost $1,290.

"I said to the Lord, 'If you want me to get one of these paintings, somehow you have to get the money so I can purchase it,'" Antonetz said.

Though not an experienced gambler, Antonetz tried her luck at a slot machine in New York and won upwards of $1,000. With her winnings, she bought the painting on Sept. 5, the 14th anniversary of her death.

Besides the emotional impact of that painting, it holds a fun, artistic secret of Beck's.

"Way back when I was painting in the '60s, my kids would ask me what I was doing and I said I was 'monkeying around,'" Beck said. "Ever since then, I've hidden the word 'monkey' in my paintings."

The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.