He is best known for his plein air paintings of scenes in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania (particularly the New Hope area); Jonesport, Maine; and New York City, typically in multiple-painting series.

Beck left a career in the business world to pursue painting, and at the age of 40 attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia for two years as a part time student, while also working as a portrait painter.

Rather his works depict how he feels about a particular place at a particular time using great finesse in not crossing the line into expressionism and violating verisimilitude.”[4] Beck is known for painting in series – multiple images addressing diverse aspects of the same subject.

[6] Beck’s painting series include work created while traveling the Mississippi River on a towboat pushing barges, a month-long trip through the American West, portraits of contemporary artists in the New Hope, Pennsylvania Arts Colony, amidst a symphony orchestra during its performances, with a racing team in Europe, and traveling with surgeons in Senegal.

Past columns addressed the local shoe store, the restaurant at the Metropolitan Opera House, a second-hand bookstore, and a funeral home.

Beck is also a contributing writer to the magazine Art New England[23] which is running a multi-part essay series in 2023-2024 about his painting in Maine.

Beck has supported numerous organizations in a similar fashion such Fisherman's Mark, the American Cancer Society, the Riverside Symphonia, and the James A. Michener Art Museum.

[26] In 2009, Beck began a two year stint as the host of The River, a two hour radio interview program on WDVR-FM in Sergeantsville, New Jersey where he spoke with a wide range of guests from a former Secretary of the Navy to the Director of Campbell Soup’s Test Kitchen.