Bainbridge artist Trent Beard has been working in the pen and ink medium for eight years.

He always had a talent for it, but wasn’t serious about his art until his grandmother encouraged him to take it seriously.

“When I started doing what she said, I started doing alright,” Beard said. Jobs centered on his art became available, including murals in Miller County and Donalsonville.

Now he has been working on a new medium: wood burning. Beard uses wood burners and uses them like a pencil on a wooden canvas. Contrast and depth can be shown just like on paper, but the technique’s to do that are slightly different, he said.

“It is kind of therapeutic, because it gives me a chance to let out what’s inside of me, so I can show the world,” Beard said. “It puts part of my spirit onto it. Every one of these drawings has a part of me in it. I take pain, love, joy, even hate, whatever the world is dishing out.”

Beard’s work has developed over the years, he said. He’s learning something new every day.

“It’s one of those things I am taking day by day,” he said. “Sometimes I have something on my heart that tells me to work on something.”

His love for the pen and ink medium shows in the amount of pieces he has finished over the years. Works depicting Biblical scenes, temptations in our daily lives and wildlife are prominent themes.

“I wanted to take the ink and perfect it,” Beard said. “I wanted to come up with a different style, but go a little further. Ink is one of the hardest mediums to work with because there is no forgiveness. You mess up, you can’t erase it or paint over it.”