Ray Knaub

Denver-based artist Jim Beckner paints like a jazz musician. The blues bop, the oranges swing, and the yellows vibrate. Drawn to the beat of the city, the artist creates expressionistic urban landscapes that show his unabashed love of color. More than anything, his paintings dance with their own energy, and an urban rhythm emanates from his canvases. Beckner was born and raised in Lakewood, CO, a suburb of Denver. Art played an integral role in the family. “My dad was—and still is—a watercolor artist,” he explains. “He does a lot of Colorado landscapes, very detailed, specific, realistic artwork.” Beckner remembers drawing and coloring at every opportunity when he was a child. “Both of my parents recognized that it was something I enjoyed,” he recalls. “I often drew to entertain those around me.” Occasionally, the Beckner family would drive into downtown Denver to eat out at a restaurant. “I always thought the city was an exciting place,” notes the artist. “It had a certain edginess about it.” Those early excursions, and the urban sensibility they fostered in the impressionable youth, would have a profound effect on his burgeoning talent. Pragmatism took hold, however, when he entered Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “My parents and I agreed it made sense to have something to fall back on, so I decided to major in marketing,” he says. “I figured I could always paint on my own time.” To that end he minored in painting and filled his electives with art history and studio art classes. He took three classes with CSU painting professor Patrice Sullivan—an experience that continues to resonate. “She was the first one to help me understand how to see shapes of color,” he explains. “Before that I was more inclined to view art as drawing something and then filling it in with color.” Today he traces many of the origins of his current style to his college days. “I look back at the paintings I did then,” says Beckner, “and some were very vibrant with a lot of thick brushwork. I still handle the brush the same way, although now I’m more deliberate about it.” After graduating from college, Beckner worked a number of odd jobs. He continued painting and took classes at the Art Students League of Denver, where he found another mentor in painter Mark Daily. “Mark’s more of a representational artist. And a good colorist,” notes Beckner. “He also uses a thick impasto.” As time progressed, Beckner developed a painterly style in which color and movement replaced form and outline as his driving forces. These days, “I don’t particularly enjoy working on the drawing aspect of a painting. I’m too impatient,” he confesses. “I like to work quickly and get a lot of paint on the canvas fast.” The result is a body of work heavily weighted to urban landscapes, in which the artist infuses everyday scenes with the pulsating rhythms of city life. “As they say,” he adds, “paint what you know.” .