At the tender age of 12 Natchez native Bob Stedman had already chosen what was to be his lifelong career. It was then that Stedman took the job as an artist’s apprentice under a German immigrant.

“He taught me more about art when I was 12, 13, 14 and 15 years old than I ever would have learned in college,” Stedman said.

Thanks to the tutelage of that German artist, Stedman learned a lot about art — including how to grind pigment and how to manufacture his own paintbrushes.

After high school Stedman moved to Memphis to become a pictorial painter. He hung off the sides of buildings to paint such things as 20-foot tall » Read more: Stedman has high hopes for Canvas Collection Art