Bill Beam

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Bill left the Navy music program in 1991 After his last of five stints in the Navy. He returned to school to complete his formal music education. Two years at the University of Hawaii then to Tacoma Washington to complete his formal training in music education at Pacific Lutheran University. Graduating in August of 2000 and off to begin working on his graduate degree in January of 2001 from Central Washington University which blossomed into three graduate degrees in music. After college Bill became the Director of Music at Wilson Middle School and worked as assistant director of bands Davis High School. While at Central, Bill met and fell in love with his wife Tammi. Married for over 22 years Tammi is the reason he paints. It was her idea to begin painting five years ago, and for him to finally join the YVAA. Music and the Arts have been Bill’s life for over 50 years, painting for five of those 50 years, which completes the artistic trifecta, vocal, instrumental, and artistic performance. Now, the sky really is the limit.

Born and raised in Washington, Cheryl and her husband relocated to Yakima in 2014 after 28 years in Pierce County. She is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and retired from the Puyallup School District and a career in the field of education. For the past several years she has been pursuing a lifelong interest in the arts.

As a former member of Rainier League of Arts, she participated in numerous art shows. She exhibited regularly at the Puyallup Fair Art Show during the Washington State Fair. Cheryl was artist of the month in June 2003 at Wagner’s crafts where she demonstrated in pastel. She received the 2006 Tacoma Mayor’s Art Award for “Hailey’s Dahlia” during the South Sound 4 Art League Exhibition at the Bronze Works in Tacoma. In 2009 she received 3rd place for “Heading Home” at the RLA members show, Serendipity. In 2011 she received the People’s Choice Award at Lakewold Gardens for Hailey’s Dahlia and was also accepted into the 9th Annual Open Regional Juried Art Exhibition in Gig Harbor. Her watercolor painting, “Still Life in Red, White, Blue,” received 3rd place at the Puyallup Fair and 2nd place at the 2014 Lakewood Arts Fest. Her painting, Two Red Petunias received 3rd place for watercolor at the Washington State Fair in September, 2018. In 2019 she received 1st place in Acrylic and the Director’s Purchase Award for her painting, “September Morning” at the Central Washington State Fair in Yakima. She also received 3rd place for her drawing, “Lake Tipsoo.”

Cheryl enjoys working with a variety of mediums and strives to depict the beauty of God’s creation in flowers, landscapes, and portraits. A number of her works are in private collections in our state.  

I am a naturalist and artist who loves to explore the beauty of nature through the medium of watercolors.

One of my favorite subjects is the Central Washington shrub steppe landscape. I delight in the vivid colors, darks and lights of the skies, rolling hills, Ponderosa pines and grasslands and continue to experiment on how best to capture this unique landscape in watercolor.