I have been a professional, self-taught artist since 2007. It's been my goal to explore the natural world and see how it inspires me and others. From true-to-life realism to whimsical fantasy, I want show the beauty of nature and tell stories with my artwork.
I grew up on an animal rescue farm and nature preserve in Trinity, NC. There, all animals became my kin. Not only were they family, but they each had stories to tell. I listened like a bright-eyed child and began to file the stories away in my mind. Each painting, whether a portrait or a scene, was inspired by a fragment of borrowed history. Like a spider spinning her web, I painted the beauty of the natural world one brushstroke at a time until they looked alive. I've always aimed to make my paintings real enough to breathe, to give new life to the stories I was taught as a child and continue to be taught today. Whether I paint a serene portrait or a whimsical dancing creature, even a landscape or still life, I 'm sharing a little fraction of what I've learned.
My art doesn't stop with paintings. Nature is the world's best artist - so it's from her that I gather materials and inspiration to create. Most of my sculptures are made from gourds and clay. I learned to use gourds from my grandmother, Yvonne "Sam" Spinks, who grows a majority of the gourds I use from her garden in Thomasville, North Carolina. After my introduction to gourds, I fell in love with the natural medium. The animals I sculpt depend on the gourds themselves. They grow in unique shapes and sizes, and I let them tell me what they want to be. It adds another element to the wonders of nature.
Throughout the years, my entire family has celebrated arts and supported my goals. My mother, Kay Bevan, is a potter, and my father Ricky Bevan is a general contractor and cabinet maker. My sister is even an aspiring writer. My grandfather Dean Spinks was an architect, and my grandmother was a seamstress along with growing and creating with gourds. Together we make our own artistic web, each with our own talents. Just as the many animals I've come to know have history, and inspire everything I do, so do my family. Our stories will live on in art.
~ Cara Bevan
