Stacy Beam 57 | Stacy Beam

Stacy Beam applied his oils, brushes and talents to create “I Love a Rainy Night,” top. Also the title of a song by Eddie Rabbit and David Morrow, the canvas captures the atmosphere of a wet evening at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. “A New York State of Mind,” above, was inspired by the song and his abstract view of the city from his former sixth floor apartment there. “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles lent inspiration and the title to his landscape at left.

Story by David Moore Painting images provided by Stacy Beam

As good as Stacy Beam is at painting, it’s doubtful he could draw a simple line that neatly divides his work on canvas from his music. Both are integral to his very being, entwined surges from a fountainhead of creativity tapped deeply into an artistic soul.

Some people who watched or grew up with Stacy associate him with horses; showing Tennessee Walkers at the arena in Arab City Park; enthusiastically painting equine portraits. Others recall his band days at Arab High School and singing in choirs; or stories in The Arab Tribune about his musical performance and exploits at Dollywood, in Nashville and New York City.

Either way, add in his involvement in the visual arts, theatre and dance, and in some form or fashion, a life of creativity seemed inevitable for Stacy.

“I was doing visual art as a teenager and had a thriving business painting portraits of horses,” he says. “By college, I was burned out on that and leaned in the musical direction – which was great. It was a wonderful season in my life.”

But being a musician almost ensures lots of travel, and being on the road eventually wore thin – especially after he had a family.

“I would be packing to leave again, and my daughter would try to climb into my suitcase.” It was non-verbal but nonetheless strong language. Stacy got the message.

He did woodwork for a while, but ‘twas painting that beckoned his creativity. So he picked up his brushes and became a professional artist. Fittingly, Stacy finds music often sways what emerges on canvas.

No line exists. Art and music are melded into what he calls his “golden mean.”

Stacy, his wife, Amanda, and their 10-year-old daughter Bentley, live in Nashville. Besides helping manage the business side of his fine art, she sells real estate for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices – and lots of it. In an office of 160 agents, Amanda’s been the top listing and buyers agent in recent years.

Having bought and flipped several houses over the years, the Beams have been dubbed “arm-chair” Realtors by some of their friends. Their home today is near Brentwood, which has been creatively renovated inside and out, includes the detached garage apartment that’s now a comfortable art studio.

Stacy’s titled his landscape at left “Fields of Gold” after the song by Sting. “If a piece of art can make you ask a question, you are engaged,” he says. “If I put enough elements in there, it makes you want to lean in and see what’s in, say, that dark space. If you already loved the song in the title, I’ve softened you up. You are more receptive to what I had to say.” Above, Stacy and his wife, Amanda, clown around with daughter Bentley in her backyard playhouse at their home south of Nashville.

Here Stacy paints – prolifically. His oil palette contains dynamic color combinations which he applies with varied techniques to landscapes inspired by Marshall County, Middle Tennessee or New York City. He also paints abstracts, portraits, horses and Dolly Parton – all with focus.

“My purpose,” he says, “is to invite viewers to a contemplative prayer/ meditation, to engage with my art as I discover and capture the beauty in our physical world.”

Stacy uses “the hint of a story line” to draw in viewers. It may be an umbrella, an area of shadow or warm sunlight … some element on the canvas to get viewers to at least pose a question if not take a journey of discovery.

Music is muse to many a canvas. Painting as he listens, the title of a song may well become the piece’s namesake.

“Rhythm and musical colors are represented in the art, connected to the golden mean that informs every conscious or unconscious artistic decision I make,” Stacy says. “In interpreting song titles visually, I have discovered a whole new avenue with which to engage someone – an open invitation for spectators to enjoy an artistic ride.”

Stacy’s artistic ride began in Arab.

He and his older brother, Steve, are sons of Gary and Olethia Beam. She taught junior high English for 35 years. Gary did a bit of everything. Not only was he mayor of Arab in 2008-2012 and is currently a lay preacher, over time Gary raised horses for a hobby, worked for Ryder International, ran a golf course, did construction work and owned chicken houses.

“He’d wake me up 30 minutes early before getting ready for school to go to the chicken house,” Stacy laughs. “Picking up dead chickens … boy, talk about giving you a work ethic.”

Dead chickens notwithstanding, creativity was part of his identity as long as he can remember.

“As soon as I could, I had a crayon in my hand,” Stacy says. “You could sit me down and come back two hours later I was still working at it.”

The first time he actually painted was in pre-kindergarten. He created an abstract, intentionally, he says. When he was not yet 10, the gifted teacher, Betty Hendrix, bought a piece of his art, perhaps launching his eventual career.

“Walking on Water,” above, depicts a rainy night at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration and holds a number of storylines. The Tennessee Walkers are literally “walking on water” as they round the track. Stacy’s dad once had a green and white umbrella, and there’s a sense of anticipation in the small boy entering with this father. “It resonates in a way that seems fresh,” Stacy says. “People say it was 1962. The next person, it was another year.” At right is “Upon this Rock,” depicting St. Peters in Rome and further inspired by the gospel song by Sandi Patty. Stacy visited St. Peter’s on a trip to Europe where he visited museums to study the works of the masters of impressionism. The landscape at far right was inspired by haunting “Ashokan Farewell,” a famous folk music waltz in the style of a Scottish lament.

Throughout school he did bulletin boards for teachers. “I was the kid who won the poster contest,” Stacy says.

Band director Wayne Washam was another big influence.

“Anybody who has been in the band can give you stories on the impact of that man,” Stacy says. “There was a lot of mentoring, encouraging people.”

It continued at Wallace State Community College where Robert Bean was Stacy’s director in the jazz band.

Amajor mentor was the late Billie Nipper, renowned for her portraits of horses, whom he visited as a sixth grader at her studio in Cleveland, Tennessee. For the next three summers he took a week of lessons under her tutelage.

The techniques Billie taught him were of immediate value, but it was years before he realized the groundwork she provided him in terms of art as a business and client connections.

“We have to turn our artwork into money at some point, or the reality is it doesn’t continue,” Stacy says.

His grandfather Harold Bentley was an iconic football coach at Arab High. While not actually a mentor, he proved to be a tremendous source of encouragement.

“He held out hope for so long that I would be a football player,” Stacy says. “But I could not throw a football to save my life.”

Harold eventually realized football was not in Stacy’s future, but he also realized his grandson had many other talents and for years carried his photo in his wallet for bragging purposes.

“I’m a lover and not a fighter,” Stacy now laughs. “It wasn’t all roses, but I think that galvanized my determination. ‘I may not be a sports dude but, I’ll show you.’ That pushed me to be serious about my work.”

After graduating from AHS in 1992, he attended Wallace State and the University of Montevallo before graduating four years later from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in music industry and an emphasis in voice.

“I needed to be in the commercial vein,” Stacy says.

During college, Stacy worked at Dollywood, singing and dancing in stage shows.

“Theatre was my trajectory for a while,” he says. “Dollywood was a great jumping off place for me.”

Afterward, he worked and performed at a dinner theatre in Boca Raton, Florida. One customer – neither happy nor kind – told him, “If you’re as bad a singer as you are a waiter, you’ll never go anywhere.”

It didn’t slow him down. In 1998-99 Stacy lived in New York City where he played at piano bars as well as a church. He was also the pianist for No Other Name, a group with which he recorded “traditional gospel music with a twist.”

Back in Nashville, he performed songs he composed at the Bluebird Café and traveled to play organ at horse shows.

“I was lighting fuses whenever I could,” he says.

The fuse he lit with Amanda was a bit slow to spark. They met in the spring of 2003 at The Pub of Love, a local songwriter hangout.

“I was an aspiring country star playing accordion in a band,” Stacy says. He smoked at the time and figures that’s why they didn’t hit it off.

After a recording session several months later, he visited Nashville’s Park Café where an attractive woman immediately grabbed his attention. It was Amanda, who reminded him they’d met before. He pretended to remember. But this time they hit if off. They understood that family was important as both their grandfathers had just died.

He soon proposed to her on a snowy rooftop while back in NYC to play a Christmas gig. Fuse sparkling, they went from dating to married in about three months.

Stacy continued his music. Amanda managed the business end full time before entering real estate. Along the way they bought, renovated and sold six properties; some they called home for a while. In 2010 Bentley was born.

Three or four years later, Stacy translated his daughter’s suitcase message and began transitioning out of music, doing woodwork a while before returning to his love of painting.

Initially, he couldn’t afford to paint anything unless it was commissioned. He enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to paint portraits, horses, pets, perhaps something abstract to fit the colors

Having a little fun in Stacy’s studio, Bentley “paints” a mustache on her dad. Behind Amanda is one of Stacy’s recent commissions, a picture of the administration building at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In December he posted an the image online and within 30 minutes 1,000 people had engaged with it. For more information on Stacy and his work, visit: stacybeam.com

of a client’s home. But he strove to communicate something deeper, to take his art to another plane.

“I saw an opportunity where I could bring my fine art to the center,” Stacy says.

Some of Stacy’s abstracts are purely expressions of color and an attachment to music, such as “Easter Parade,” left, inspired by the Irving Berlin song. Stacy’s abstract cityscapes are all inspired by his love of both New York and Nashville ... and most have musical ties, as well. “City Lights,” upper left, has as its namesake the 1957 country song by Bill Anderson. “Free Fallin’,” above, captures some of the rush of a roller coaster in a city. Stacy had Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” in his mind –and ears – as he painted it. More than just a cityscape, he laughs, one could call the abstract a “Pettyscape.” “Whatever I’m working on at the moment is my favorite piece … or the one I hate the most until I can wrestle it into something worth seeing,” he says. “That’s part of the enjoyment – creating a play between tension and payoff. It’s the same with music.”

He associated with York & Friends Fine Art in Nashville. Exhibits at hip places such as White Avenue Studio enhanced his growing reputation. Ripples spread farther with acceptance to juried art shows in Nashville, Atlanta and, more recently, at East Tennessee State University.

It’s partly because of cleaning his dad’s chicken houses that most days, from at least 9 to 3, Stacy lays siege to canvases on the easel in his studio by their house. Work ethic plus creativity make for a prolific artist. He paints about 50 pieces a year.

“Left to my own devices,” he says, “I do paint a lot.”

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One week in January he turned out four commissioned pieces.

It doesn’t pay that much, nor is it done solely for money, but Stacy is the organist at Christ Church Nashville. And Amanda’s success takes a lot of pressure off painting just to pay bills. Combined with Stacy’s growing reputation he’s freer these days to paint from shear inspiration rather than commissions.

“It’s allowed me to explore and do a body of work outside portraits,” he says, specifically of Amanda’s career. “I’m working my way out of commissions,” he says. “I prefer to do what I do … but I am happy to accommodate portraits and other commissioned work.”

When embarking upon landscapes and abstracts, Stacy doesn’t always have a destination in mind.

“You get started and the piece tells you what it wants to be. But it’s different every time,” he says. “Often I set out in one direction, but that’s not squarely where I end up. Hopefully, it’s a little better than I imagined. At my best, that is what I’m going for.” Horses –especially Tennessee Walkers – have always been a Whatever it is that transforms Stacy’s well of part of Stacy’s life and were even his first commissions. He titled creativity through the oils the image above “Silver.” Several of his Tennessee collectors and on his brush to the canvas friends hail from Arab, including country music artist and on his easel, it’s nearly horse fan Jill King, Linda Peek Schacht and Cindy Dupree. always accompanied by music in his studio.

“Music and art have “It is a business,” Stacy says. “But it’s also been companion centers of my life forever,” a gift. Anything I do in the arts feels like I’m Stacy says. “Both are an expression of emotion. playing just a little bit. That’s what I would do A way to connect on an emotional level. The if you let me alone – I’m going to play piano or arts, creativity … art is the language I speak. paint. That’s just what I do. I love it.” That’s a bit flowery but true.” And yes, he says, it would be impossible to

So he continues to stretch and express draw a simple line that neatly divides his work himself, to discover himself as an artist. It is, on canvas from his music. quite literally, his job. Good Life Magazine