Beverly Derrick’s studies over the last 30 years have included Stanford University, Corcoran School of Art, Atlanta College of Art, The Art Students League of New York, Greenville Museum Art School, Furman University and the Washington Studio School. She attributes her greatest influence from her studies with renowned figurative painters Henry Casselli, Burton Silverman and Charles Reid.
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Beverly is as at ease painting the restoration workers of her historic city as she is painting commissioned portraits of U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, displayed in the U.S. Capitol building, and U.S. Senator Claude Pepper, housed in the permanent collection of the Claude Pepper Museum at the University of Florida.
A strong component of Beverly’s work is the fundamental element of drawing. She explains: “My preliminary graphite drawings are when I first bring forth the human spirit and my drawings serve as much significance as my oil paintings. The simple act of drawing the figure is emotionally evocative.” In her work, each figure demonstrates her insight and capacity to observe day to day activity and capture the movement and individual human spirit with fluidity, vitality and color.
Beverly Derrick’s work has been exhibited widely across the U.S., and has begun to span the globe. Twice accepted into the elite American Watercolor Society’s traveling exhibitions, 1986 & 1987, she was inducted into the South Carolina Watercolor Society exhibition in 1985 & 1989 and awarded Best in Show in 1987. Recent travels have taken her across Europe and into Africa, producing paintings that capture the ‘humanity that binds us.’ An original Oil of Africa was chosen as the cover for a recently published book entitled: “The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization Niumi, the Gambi,” authored by: Donald R. Wright. Several of Beverly’s paintings were selected for IL CHIOSTRO LA DOLCE VITA: Impressions of Italy.