Duke Beardsley, "Stand and Deliver: Borderline Calamity from the Lost Trail to Nowhere" June 2019

DUKE BE ARD SLE Y

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June 25 - July 6, 2019 Jackson Hole

DUKE BE ARD SLE Y Stand and Deliver: Borderline Calamity from the Lost Trail to Nowhere

Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com

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STAND AND DELIVER: BORDERLINE CALAMITY FROM THE LOST TRAIL TO NOWHERE With the sun cresting above the Colorado horizon, Duke Beardsley witnessed a moment between two friends that made him slow his pace. Often attuned to movement, this scene made him pause and notice the narrative potential of two cowboys talking over a saddled horse. He circled them with his camera, shooting from every angle in the warm light of sunrise. The quiet intimacy of friends preparing for a ride—their words open to interpretation by painter and viewer alike.

Back in his studio, he waited for the right time to return to the episode. Working big, he tackles 10-foot canvases with aplomb, painting rows of riding cowboys freehand, each figure distinct. Recently, he’s been adding ribbons of color around the riders, a gesture of stylized control over the galloping chaos. The sunrise scene rose from this shift, signaling a sharper turn toward nuanced iconography. He didn’t know how to tackle it until he tipped a 9-by-6-foot canvas on its

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side. True to his process, the inspiration then flowed unbridled as he set down a charcoal sketch in 30 minutes (music blaring). Stepping back, he assessed, recording his reactions as notes on the canvas. He sent a photo of the annotated sketch to the friends featured: “This is all wrong” scrawled beneath the mare’s belly. The reply: Please use that as the title. This is Beardsley’s modus operandi as an artist: he lets his paintings feel all wrong until they feel all resolved; he relinquishes control, teetering on the edge until impulse becomes purpose. Usually, spontaneity precedes intention. The conversation painting marks a new focus on reflective compositions.

True to his calling as a storyteller, he sets his paintings in the narrative current of Western art—the compelling story lines of C.M. Russell and Frederic Remington.

Distinguishing himself, he provides fewer directional cues than his aesthetic forefathers. For instance, the sunrise cowboys encourage subjective readings: their conversation could be seen as serious, or they could be trading recipes.

The reader sets the plot. “I want to give you even less and then invite you to tell your own story,” he says. “I want to reembrace narrative in Western art, and it’s fun now to see that happening in a quiet and subtle way.”

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