About the Artist

About the Artist

Contact Autumn: autumnbeckman@gmail.com

Houston native Autumn Beckman has been passionate about animals and art all her life but it wasn’t until she met Sebastian, her miniature dachshund, that she was inspired to make dogs a major part of her artwork. She began in 2005 by painting dogs acting out events from her real life but the ideas flowed faster than she was able to paint them so she started a dog drawing journal that she still keeps today. While filling many books with hundreds of these diary-type drawings she continued to paint portraits of Sebastian and other dogs and now offers her services to people who want to honor their pets through artwork.

Autumn is a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where she studied painting and photography, following which she studied animation at the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City. She holds bachelors degrees in painting and psychology from the University of Houston and a masters degree in psychology from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Currently she is working on her PhD in social-personality psychology, looking at the ways women artists use their art to rebuild following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Ike in Galveston, TX. She has also earned a graduate level certificate in film studies and she currently volunteers at the Houston Area Women's Center which works with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Autumn has worked with a wide range of animals at vet clinics, the Houston Zoo, and Moody Gardens and her artwork has been published numerous times and shown in local galleries including the Art Car Museum, Commerce Street Art Warehouse, and the Cullen Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Fine Arts. Autumn has also won many art competitions including Texas’ Best of Show in the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Competition and a gold medal award in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s School Art Competition. She currently owns two art business: Autumn's Dogs where she offers custom pet portraits in painting and photography and Autumn's Weddings where she offers wedding photography.

Autumn says, “Our animals bring so much to us and I feel blessed to be able to capture particular moments of dogs’ lives for people to remember and enjoy. I work from clients’ favorite photographs and can even meet pets to gain a sense of their personality, which helps me better capture their character in a painting or drawing. It’s a great tribute to our beloved friends and a way for their spirits to live on for years.”