About Brad

Brad Bealmear was born in Woodward, OK in 1953, and raised in Portales, NM. At 12 he owned a Minolta SLR, put together a darkroom and was already busy selling the junior high cheerleaders prints of themselves in action. Later he attended ENMU on a journalism scholarship, moving on to Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara CA in the mid ‘70s (when it was still one of the country’s top photography schools).

In 1979 Brad set up a studio in Santa Fe from which he traveled the US and beyond photographing architecture and cars. He also photographed fashion, food and jewelry, and met his significant other, married, and suddenly had an instant beautiful family. In 1983 the family moved to NYC, where he was busy photographing jewelry and other luxury items. In addition to jewelry, watches and clocks he specialized in reflective merchandise such as china, crystal, silver, etc. His ads for Tiffany & Co. and other clients were seen in fashion magazines, catalogs and books around the world. He was lucky enough to be able to work with Jacqueline Onassis, Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso and several of New York’s top art directors.

In 2006 Brad and his wife returned to Santa Fe where he continued to do some commercial work, but also began to photograph the female nude (sometimes with flower petals, aspen leaves or other ad hoc outfits - the Jazz Studio series) and to travel around New Mexico to produce black and white images of the beautiful old historic adobe churches, landscapes, ruins, etc. (the New Mexico Wanderings series) In 2014 he began to paint abstracts on canvas and paper - this was an activity that continued his creativity in a different way, and was very fulfilling for over a decade.

As of 2026 Brad has wound down his painting to utilize the figurative images from Jazz Studio in a new way, in the Mythic series of digital fine art illustrations. He calls these prints “styluscuts” as they use the same hand movements as the woodcuts he produced during his Tiffany years. These works on paper, signed and dated on ink are available directly through the studio. They are also available as open edition prints on paper, stretched canvas, acrylic and metal through Saatchiart.

New Mexico Wanderings continues to grow as well, and prints are available through the studio and may also be added to Saatchiart soon.