The window of Canal Street's Village Cleaners in Ellenville is home to several paintings by resident artist John Beilman. From nature scenes depicting the Hudson Valley, to portraits of horses, and even one of the King himself, Elvis Presley, the works show off his artistic talents. With such a wide range of subjects, after looking at his art, one thing about Beilman is for sure: he loves to paint, and to paint well.

Beilman has lived in Ellenville all his life, and worked as the superintendent of water and sewage for the village of Ellenville for 34 years until retiring in 1989. He didn't stay idle for long; he worked in construction for ten years until he retired again in 1999, which was when the "art bug" bit him.

"I just started to paint. I didn't study or take any lessons or anything," he says. A family man, Beilman has four daughters and six grandchildren. "When you raise a family and everything, you just don't have the time to sit down and paint. But I've always been very aware of my surroundings as far as trees, and shadows, and skies." Beilman has been influenced by the natural surroundings of the area. "I love the outdoors, and we're here with the mountains and streams…just a lot of natural scenery, and old barns…I paint a lot of D & H canal scenes."

Beilman is strictly a painter, saying, "I paint and I don't fool with anything else." When asked about his favorite subjects, Beilman admits a fondness for horses and people. "They create a better challenge, I think. If you paint a barn…well, a barn is a barn. But a person's got to look like the person, and a horse has got to look like the horse. It's got to have the muscle structure, and it's got to have everything there in order to be a good painting."

When asked about painting horses, he says, "never rode a horse in my life. My son-in-law has a horse, he asked me to paint it, and I did, and I found it to be an interesting subject, so I went to the library and got some books and looked at them for the bone structures, the muscle structures, and what have you, and then I continued to paint horses."

Beilman has sold work that can be found scattered throughout the Hudson Valley, from Pine Bush to Saugerties to High Falls, from the Wurtsboro Library to the Historical Society at Summitville, just to name a few. Beilman is modest about it, saying his work is hung, "you know, here and there." Beilman continues, "I enjoy doing it, and if I never sold another painting I would still paint. But on the other hand, you like to sell enough work to pay for your hobby." John Beilman's paintings will be displayed through July, and he can be contacted at 845-647-6924.

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