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If you haven’t seen a Daniel Beach painting yet, you will. A fixture in the Capital City since 1999, he has spent the past few years quietly painting under the radar, but his current projects have him so excited it looks like the young artist is set to re-emerge on the Baton Rouge art scene with a new-found confidence.

Like any artist, Beach loves sharing his work with others, but this very private artist hasn’t shown his paintings in a very long time. In the past, he was taken advantage of when he showed at galleries in Dallas and Shreveport. He even lost one of his favorites when a gallery deal went sour in Texas. He recently showed at Rasputin June 28 for the Perspektiv show and spoke of the new projects he is working on.

“I’m not the type to make a big deal about what I’m working on, but the next six or seven paintings are really heartfelt,” he says. “They make me feel very….”

He pauses, thinking, takes a drink and finally says, “Open.”

Early in his career Beach experienced personal tragedy when his father died unexpectedly in September 2001. Retreating into his artwork was his way of coming to terms with some unresolved issues following his father’s death.

“My dad never had a passion, he hated his job,” he says. “I had my painting as an outlet, and he never had that. I realized that the money wasn’t important. I was painting, and that’s all that mattered. When I’m 46, I don’t want to wake up and feel like I haven’t done anything with my life.”

Feeling more confident in his work, Beach says he is applying more of himself onto the canvas. He has always been very reserved and guarded in his art and in his personal life, but he is ready for the openness he says his new pieces give him.

Originally from Shreveport, Beach came to Baton Rouge to pursue a degree in architecture at LSU. Shortly after immersing himself in the rigorous curriculum and cutthroat competition of the program, he discovered it was not what he wanted to do with his life. The 25-year-old has never been formally trained in painting, and his art education is limited to the art classes he took at Caddo Magnet High School in his hometown.

After dropping out of school, he took up oil painting and began experimenting with color and lighting. Fascinated by black-and-white photography, he began a series of work focusing on contrasts using a multitude of gray pigments. Beach’s artwork is oil painting after oil painting of careful planning and execution, using color to set the tone.

“Color and lighting are very important to me,” he says. “I focus on an idea or a theme, like human turmoil. The objects in the painting aren’t necessarily going to give that away. I use the colors to tell that story.”

And each painting begs the question, painting or photograph? One piece caught a lot of attention at the Perspektiv show. It’s called “My Prusia in 2-B,” and the deep azure and ochre shades swirl together to create a beautiful marriage of oil on canvas. There is an outline of a windowpane, and the shadow of a nude female form beckons you to look in. It’s a voyeuristic journey for the senses, and there’s even a Seinfeld reference involved. Nudes seem to be a recurring theme in Beach’s paintings, but each one means something very different to the artist. His mother recently saw one of his nudes and commissioned three more of them. Talk about parental support.

“It’s weird because it’s your mom, but it’s cool,” he says. “Hopefully, I can get the same response from everyone else who sees my art.”