Nancy Lietz Beckham Artist I have lived in the San Gabriel Valley for most of my life, first being raised in Arcadia, and graduating from Arcadia High School in 1966. I attended college at University of California at Santa Barbara and graduated with a double major in History and English. I then attended UC Irvine and received my Standard Elementary Life K-9 Teaching Credential and began working in 1971. I then married and traveled north to San Francisco. I returned to the Pasadena area with my husband after a three-year hiatus while I taught school in Belmont, California and helped put him through law school at University of San Francisco. Once my husband passed the bar, we returned to the Pasadena area and lived in the Madison Heights area of Pasadena until 2007. I then relocated to Sierra Madre where I live today.
I taught school in South Pasadena Unified School District beginning in 1974 until I retired in 2012. During this time, I raised three children who are now adults. I also have three grandchildren currently who live in Baltimore. Sadly, I do not see them often. Working full time, being married to a hard-working lawyer whose schedule also demanded business entertaining, and raising three children dominated my time until I retired. In 2014 I realized after taking a few art classes that I had an undiscovered talent for drawing, so I pursued this interest.
I was always drawn to botanical art because my home is filled with framed real botanical art I brought back from Europe. I also have always loved flowers as my gardens in my homes always reflected an abundance of color, and still do despite the drought we are currently experiencing. However, I never dreamed I could create the art myself. So I traded grading papers to drawing plants and flowers and never looked back. I joined the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Botanical Guild of Southern California, and the Colored Pencil Society of America. I have exhibited my work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, the Brody Botanical Center at the Huntington Library, Art Galleries, and Botanical Gardens; the San Diego Botanical Gardens, and the LA Country Arboretum. Jacob Maarse is also selling my cards, prints, and giclees. Retirement has found me drawing on a constant basis, and enjoying new and old friends who love flowers, gardens, and drawing flowers as well. Who Knew?