"Putting the figures on a big color field is an invitation to put yourself in the painting. It plays up the cowboy mystique. We're all cowboys at some point in our lives." - Duke Beardsley
Duke Beardsley was born in 1969 in Denver, Colorado. He studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
As a sixth generation Coloradan, Duke Beardsley's western roots run deep and his art reflects those roots. Splitting his time between Denver and his family's cattle ranch in eastern Colorado, he has been drawing and painting images of the American West most of his life. His work blends modern artistic elements with the traditional icons of the West. The result has made him a consistently popular favorite among collectors of contemporary western art.
Beardsley has a masterly command of drawing technique. His working cowboy images are rendered in a clever minimalist approach and presented in palettes that lend a Pop art sensibility. His unique art, like his western lifestyle, is a joyful melding of tradition and contemporary styling.
Beardsley's work has been featured in notable exhibitions across the country such as the Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale, the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, The Russell: The Sale to Benefit the C.M. Russell Museum, and the Colorado Governor's Invitational Art Show & Sale. His work was also included in Out West: The Great American Landscape, the 2007 groundbreaking contemporary western art exhibition that toured China.
Beardsley won the 2008 Colorado Governor's Award for his piece entitled "Colorado Horsepower." His work can be found in noteworthy collections around the world, including the Forbes Collection, Denver Art Museum, Booth Museum of Western Art, and the State of Colorado. In 2011, he was named Artist of the Year by the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado. His work was commissioned for the 2013 Calgary Stampede poster.
Selected publications:
Southwest Art, "Best of the West" April, 2003
Southwest Art, "21 Under 31" September, 2001
