Clearwater Character
Beth Warmath
"
They call me the ‘Muralista,'" said Beth Warmath, a
Clearwater resident, of one of her nicknames given
to her by local designers. "I love to paint, and I love
to paint big!”
04 MyClearwater
Warmath is a local artist who prefers to
paint large-scale works of five
feet tall or more, up to the
size of murals. “I have a
gift to scale art from
a sketch to a wall.”
She said it’s good
exercise, too.
A Clearwater
resident of 20
years, she has
worked in various
artistic mediums:
paint, drawing, sculpture,
graphic design and costume
design. “I feel like I’ve dipped
my toe in every type of art,” Warmath said. “I'm pretty
confident now that I can make just about anything." She
loves to mix colors. Her palettes start
with red, yellow, blue, black and white.
Everything else, she makes by mixing
colors.
Her love of all things art began when
she was a little girl. “I’ve loved art and
creating my whole life,” Warmath
said. She went to college to become a
graphic designer and worked in two
major corporations in Tampa, designing
catalogues, billboards and marketing
materials. She then went on to teach
elementary art for 10 years in the Pinellas
County School District. “That was a
lot of fun,” she said. "The little ones are
so imaginative. I taught them about
art, history, styles and mediums, and they taught me even
more."
Now, she is a full-time mural artist. Several of her creations
are found in our bright and beautiful city. She painted a
mural at Jimmy Hula’s Restaurant on north Clearwater
Beach, and there is a three-story mural in the city’s
Municipal Services Building’s stairwell, which is 8-feet wide
by 58-feet tall, with 25 endangered animals hidden within
the painting. These are just two of about 100 murals that she
has painted.
Warmath has painted all over the world, and you can find
many of her works at several places in Pinellas County: at
Second Century Studios in Downtown Clearwater, Safety
Harbor Art & Music, and Black Crow
Coffee in St. Petersburg, just to name
a few. She is sponsored by Benjamin
Moore First Choice Paints, a local
paint shop on Sunset Point Road in
Clearwater.
Warmath is part of the Bazaar Art Co-op
and showcases her art in the Second
Century Studios, located at the corner
of Osceola Avenue and Cleveland Street.
(To read more about Second Century
Studios, see the feature article on page 2).
The co-op includes 12 to 15 artists, and
Warmath is honored to have a place to
display her tropical art in her hometown.
"There's more foot traffic now in Downtown Clearwater,"
she said. "I'd love to have a studio space in the downtown.
That has always been my dream. My home studio is great,
but I'd love to be in the community."