Beatty served in the Riel Rebellion. He studied at Central Ontario School of Art under J.W.L. Forster. His overall style is realism with a touch of sentiment and his subject matter is that of the Group of Seven, the wilds of the Canadian northland. Beatty also studied at the Academie Julian in Paris. He was a teacher at the Ontario College of Art 1912-41. O.S.A. 1901-02, R.C.A. 1913. He was a very good friend of Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald and when Thomson died MacDonald and he went up to Canoe Lake to build the Cairn to mark the spot where he died.
