Becky Keenan

A Journey of Creative Exploration

I’ve always been “a creative”. I find creativity in everything I do. From a young age, I was always making things into something else. A nod to my mother who taught me how to make Barbie shoes out of aluminum foil, but that’s a story for another time.

I started my first business at twenty-one, which fulfilled a creative desire. I sold it and created another business which I still run today, Network Legal. Most people know me as an estate planner.

In the meantime, I created a home and four beautiful children. I composed music, created gardens, sewed, knitted, and continued making things into something else. But no one had ever told me I could draw or paint. You had to be an “artist” to do that. So, I never tried.

In  2007, I was given the opportunity to paint one night with a longtime “eccentric” artist friend. We would meet with three other people, all non-artists on the porch of a little 1950’s house on Lake Wylie on a Friday night.  We would begin painting at 10:00 p.m. and paint until 4:00 a.m., because that’s what “eccentric” artists do, I assumed.

That night it was confirmed that I could paint. The piece of art I created opened the door to my love of painting. And so, it began.

For the past seventeen years I’ve mostly devoted myself to portrait painting, from family and friends to pop culture icons. I love that a portrait captures a piece of history that a family can pass on to their next generation. I feel a connection as I analyze every detail of a face, the corner of a mouth, the light reflecting on a cheekbone or a penetrating glance. I’m always striving for the one brush stroke that captures my subject’s unique personality. I want my paintings to evoke thoughts and questions about the stories my paintings tell.    I invite you to look at my work. If you would like to get more information on creating a piece of history for your family, click here.