Artists Registry
Green Valley AZ United States
Artist's Statement
Until I moved to the desert, my work was largely realistic and painted in transparent watercolor. Shortly after my arrival in Arizona, I became involved in various art groups and learned of the Eva Briggs Annual Abstract Art Competition and began experimenting with painting in the abstract. I have found this style of expression to be freeing, stimulating, and invigorating. Eva Briggs stated in her bequest that she wanted artists to "get out of the box" -- she certainly succeeded in my case!
Resume
Artist's Profile: Hugh Beykirch
Hugh Beykirch was born in Duesseldorf, Germany, and came to the United States in 1954. He pursued a career in business until 1965 when he returned to academic studies. He received his Ph.D. in Audiology at Wayne State University Medical School, Detroit, in 1974. Essentially self-taught as an artist, he was always interested in the Humanities and Fine Arts. His interest in actively painting was reawakened with a visit to the Saxon Mountain Gallery in Georgetown, Colorado. He studied with the founder of the gallery, Bill Alexander, in 1981 and work-shopped with well-known Colorado Artists, Linda Roberts and Karen Vance. Beykirch joined the Thursday Painters at the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1994. He pursued further studies under Harriett Hasty in Parkersburg, Iowa, and Terrence Leach in Durango, Colorado. In Winter Park, Colorado, Beykirch painted with the Grand County Artists, a group pursuing various media. In the Spring of 2004, the artist was invited to become a member of the Madera Artists and the Santa Rita Art League in Green Valley, Arizona, and then became an active participant in the abstract BRIGGade, Artists 13, and the Tubac Center of the Arts in 2005. Recently, Beykirch studied with David Simons, Hans Ressdorf, Esther Rogoway, Martha Mans, Raleigh Kinney, Pat Lambrecht-Hould, Joan Cawthorn, and Terry Leach. Until the announcement of the Eva Briggs Abstract Competition in 2004, the artist was considered a representational, realistic, and sometimes impressionistic painter of landscapes,birds, and flowers, primarily utilizing transparent watercolors. Not being bound by realism, Beykirch began to paint in terms of color, values, shapes, and line. The ultimate rewards came with the enthusiastic response to the exhibition and sale of his "New-Day Art" at the Winter Park Alpine ArtAffair in 2004. Three of Beykirch's abstract paintings, "Holy Primary", "Fractured Perfection", and "On Golden Pointe" were among the final twenty-four presented as the Best of the Briggs Abstract Art Competition, 2005, at the Rogoway Gallery, Tubac, Arizona. In 2006, his painting "Iconic Dominance" was selected for the Second Annual Briggs Exhibit at the Rogoway Gallery as were both of his entries, “Odyssey” and “Journeys”, at the Briggs Competition of 2007. In 2008, "Celestial Visitation" was among the final 24 exhibited at the Tubac venue. Both paintings submitted in 2009, "Shatterer of Worlds" and "After the Fall", were once again among the final 24. The artist has successfully participated in the Open-Studio Tours of the Tubac Center of the Arts (TCA) since 2009 and was invited to present in the University of Arizona Museum of Art's (UAMA) Fresh Paint project celebrating Southern Arizona's artistic talent in 2011 and 2013. In 2012, “Inscrutable” was among the Best of the Briggs destined for the Rogoway Gallery in Tubac, AZ. “Turbulence” was juried into the Aqueous XXVII exhibit at the Tubac Center of the Arts in 2013. Beykirch's work is currently exhibited at the Grand Lake Gallery in Grand Lake, Colorado, and at Framewerx in Winter Park, Colorado. Some of his current work can be viewed on www.ostyn-newman.com under "Gallery of Artists”. Interested clients may contact the artist at his studio/gallery:
Hugh Beykirch
Green Valley, AZ 85622-8028
(520) 207-5005
e-mail: kirski@cox.net