Tom Beasley
Cissy Beasley
The Art of Sibling Harmony
April 27 – July 27, 2024
The Beeville Art Museum will feature an exhibition by Beeville natives and siblings Tom Beasley, a painter, and his sister, professional photographer Cissy Beasley.
This will be the first time the siblings have exhibited their work together. The exhibit will include a wide assortment of Tom’s pastels and Cissy’s photography, featuring nature, landscape and wildlife along the Texas Coast and Southwest Texas. An artist’s reception, free to the public, is scheduled for Saturday, April 27, from noon to 2:00 p.m.
Having lived most of their lives in Beeville, Tom Beasley and Cissy Beasley are devoted to their family ranch and its wildlife inhabitants. With deep roots going back to the mid-1800s, the Beasley family is well-established in the community. The siblings' passion and appreciation for nature relates back to their grandfather, John R. Beasley, an early conservationist and Beeville’s first mayor when the city was incorporated in 1908. An avid naturalist, John R. Beasley imparted to his children and grandchildren the importance of preserving the environment and its diverse life forms. The family’s ranch near Laredo and the family compound in Rockport, Texas, served as blank canvases for the siblings throughout their childhood.
Tom prides himself on being a faithful south Texas representational artist, working primarily in pastels. His process begins with a loose, minimal freehand sketch, followed by underpainting with hard to medium-hard pastel. This first layer of color is “fixed” to the paper surface with rubbing alcohol, and after the underpainting dries, Tom applies pastels in various layers as he works to achieve intricate detail in his subject. “The way I measure the validity of my work is when people say ‘I’ve been there,’” commented Beasley. The exhibit includes many of his favorite works and a selection of pieces on loan from private collectors that have never been displayed in public.
Cissy Beasley is an award-winning wildlife photographer who is known for her ability to depict intricate details of birds and wildlife. Through the combination of lighting, composition, and animal form, she consistently produces extraordinary images of natural subjects. Beasley’s ability to predict and anticipate the movements of birds and animals is credited to years of observing wildlife under the guidance of her brother John, who passed away in 2015. Through her photography, she has also become a champion for nature and thoughtful land development. “My work is something of a ministry, allowing me to give nature a voice by portraying its struggle to survive, propagate, and all of the myriad challenges all species face every single day,” Beasley commented. “I may be the messenger but nature is the star of this show – this is never about me.”
“I have known Tom and Cissy for more than 20 years and continue to admire both their artistic excellence and devotion to their craft. It is a gift to this community to have their passion continue to capture the nature and landscape that make Southwest Texas spectacular.”
Tracy Saucier, Museum Director
A lawyer by trade, Tom Beasley has always loved being in nature. After graduating from law school, he joined his family’s law practice in Beeville and became an established attorney in the community. While he had always dabbled in art, in 2013 he began sketching and eventually adopted pastels as his artistic medium of choice. Always an admirer of Cissy’s work, he started to develop his sketching using her photographs to challenge and accelerate his skills. In 1995 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and has found drawing to be a therapeutic tool to help calm the tremors and physical manifestations. Beasley’s work has been featured and honored throughout Southwest Texas including the Texas Pastel Society, Art Center of Corpus Christi, and Rockport Art Center. In 2017 his “Five Bubbles and a Bird” was featured in the Parkinsons’ Disease Foundation Calendar.
Cissy Beasley is a professional nature & wildlife photographer, professional real estate photographer & videographer, real estate broker and FAA-certified drone pilot with an aerial photography business operating out of Rockport, TX. She is an active member of the North American Nature Photography Association, Professional Photographers of America, Coastal Conservation Association, and the Texas Wildlife Association, Beasley shares her experience with other photographers via workshops and social media. Among her honors and awards, she was the first solo female competitor to take the top prize at the prestigious Wildlife in Focus Contest in 2019. Shooting well over 30,000 pictures over five months (and entering her top 100), she won nine other first places in various categories, in addition to taking the top prize. In recent years, she has mastered photography by drones, allowing her to capture landscapes in a novel way.
Hunter's Moon at the Harbor
Mr. Tom
Dancing for Dinner - Great Egret
Speeding Bullet - Short-Eared Owl
Down the Road
Salsa del Norte
