If Duke Beardsley has learned anything over the past 18 months, it’s that “there is no separation between art and life for me.” The artist has spent that time trying to balance his art career with his personal life as he prepares for an upcoming solo exhibition with Altamira Fine Art this March. “Everything that goes in shapes everything that comes out,” he says. “Life in the studio is an extension of life at home. And just as we don’t know something until we know it, I don’t see something [artistically] until I see it.”
Afiebrado, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 72”
Beardsley’s artwork is a little bit Pop Art and a little bit modern, but always Western and always cowboy. His paintings are also, he adds, very much reflective of his current life. “It’s chaotic and somber, impulsive and reflective, vibrant and subdued. It’s steeped in tradition and detail and rubbed raw with the ambition of change and transformation.”
Duke Beardsley poses with his paintings.
Photo credit: Caleb Alvarado
The artist is heavily influenced by modern art, but his first love will always be the American West. “It just hooked me deep. And early!” he reflects. “I was in tight with Remington and Russell at about age 8 or 9. I think a lot of my style—and what keeps calling me back to ‘things cowboy’—comes from growing up in a fifth generation ranching family [in Colorado] and working ranches since I was old enough to hire out. Living that life. And simultaneously growing up in the eclectic/electric urban/suburban vibe of what was 1970s/’80s Denver. Living that life.”
The exhibition at Altamira will hang from March 5 to 16, with an artist reception on Thursday, March 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. —
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