We were lucky to catch up with Ros Beck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ros, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always drawn horses, be it at the back of a maths class at high school or drawing on empty blackboards at primary school.
While raising my 3 children i started folk art painting classes with a friend and I loved it so much.. so more years went by and fast forward to 2013 I went to a acrylic pouring class at a local art store and I came away so excited that maybe if I could learn to control acrylic pouring to paint horses I may just find “my style” that had been alluding me ! So I threw myself into it big time.. I turned my garage into my pouring room and began experimenting with techniques, paints, cell producing products, and fast forward a year i had started my face book page ros beck art and slowly built up my following, i also started painting greyhounds and whippets.. which have over taken the horses. I have now painted hundreds and hundreds of hounds and I’m so passionate about giving back by donating to many hound charities, home and abroad.
I have done many commissions of both horses and hounds. I feel so blessed to have found my niche and happy place and able to earn a living from it as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m 66 yrs old and have been painting seriously for only 10 years. I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. I live on 10 acres with my husband Barry, whippet Louie and 3 horses.
I think what sets me apart from other artists is that I have learnt to control acrylic pouring to create unique art works that can never be repeated!! The way you mix the recipe, how you layer the colors in your cup, how you add the detail of eyes with a paint brush after the pour has dried all as to the randomness of acrylic pouring.. I always draw in pencil first then fill in only that area so that I can manipulate the pour to run in the right direction so that it creates a flow of hair or muscle that makes it anatomically correct.
I’m very proud of the funds that I raised by online auctions of paintings to help rescue over 500 greyhounds at the Macau Cannidrome when it was finally shut down..
I’m super lucky to have such a wonderful following of clients who come back to buy more pieces time and again as far away as Switzerland. I have made so many wonderful friends, especially collector Mechelle Sahyoun in sydney who has worked tirelessly sharing my work on face book and gaining 1000s of new followers for me.
I do a lot of commission work from photos. 80% of my work goes to the international market and 20% New Zealand.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I only joined fb about 10 years ago so I was really dumb about it and being an older person also didn’t help much.. I didn’t really know how to build my audience and didn’t have a budget to spend on fb boosts etc! So I just joined groups that related to my art.. ie horses and hounds..I invited people to put photos of their whippets or greyhounds in the comments and I would choose one to paint and give it to the owner of that dog!! I got such a huge response i gave 4 paintings away but i also got some commissions from that as well…and I just kept posting fresh work on my page as often as I could.. and kept sharing, sharing, sharing! I want to get to 10,000 followers by the end of this year 2025.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love being in the zone (the zone being that place where time flies and loses all meaning, where peace feeds your soul, like meditation!!).
Creating something truely beautiful that will give someone else joy to have on their wall.
I guess also leaving a legacy to say I have been here!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Rosbecknz
• Facebook: Ros beck art
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits

(First image of 6) photo reference photo kind permission Karen Broemmelsick