Dee Beard Dean has been painting all her life. She was raised in the Amish countryside of rural Indiana and studied art at Grand Rapids College, Kendall College of Art and Design, and the New York Academy of Art. After marriage, she moved to the Florida Keys where she became a professional painter and passed the gift of painting to her two children, Terry Sargent and John Beard, both of whom are now successful artists. Before gaining recognition as a portrait and landscape painter, Dee pursued a career in fashion, designing and manufacturing her own clothing line with a national label.
