Studio Visit with Clayton Beavers

Originally recorded June 10, 2022.

George Irwin of Western Gallery visits with Clayton Beavers, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for a wide-ranging conversation about the artist’s work, process, and studio practice.

Transcript note: Speaker labels were assigned from the source audio where available and dialogue context otherwise. Paragraph breaks were added for readability, and verbal filler was lightly edited. Joint labels mark rapid or overlapping exchanges. This was prepared from an automated transcription, so minor transcription errors may remain.

Instagram Live studio visit—June 10, 2022

Watch the original video on Instagram (43:44)

Participants: George Irwin and Clayton Beavers

George Irwin: Alright everybody, for those of you who are going to tune into this thank you for bearing with us. I am trying to get Clayton Beavers on here and if it doesn't work out again we will try again another time but I thought I'd give it a shot just in case my internet connection is problematic so hello again everyone. Let's see if we've got Clayton on here yet. And ideally, we'll be speaking with Clayton Beavers in Oklahoma City. We've been having some connection issues and this is try number three. So three strikes will stop for today and we'll try again another day. But right now, we're gonna give it one last shot and I think I see Clayton's on here and let's see if we can get him connected.

Clayton Beavers: All right, trying our best.

George Irwin: See how the internet works in the great state of Oklahoma. Or Texas, maybe it was my phone.

Clayton Beavers: Uh-uh, so. Whistling.

George Irwin: Anybody know any jokes? So I really would love to tell you a little bit more about Clayton But I was really counting on this particular exchange to give me some more information about him. Like I was saying in a couple of my previous attempts, he's a relatively recent addition into the like Western art world, I think. And so there's not a whole lot of background on him at the moment. And so I'm hoping he can clue us in on some of that when we talk to him at some point. But for now, it seems like maybe this is still not working great. So... let's see... I'll try again. I don't know if it's like this. It says he's unable to join. Alright, Clayton. Oh! It worked! We've got him!

Clayton Beavers: Hey! I had to walk it over here closer. I have no idea what's going on. I'm so sorry.

George Irwin: No worries, no worries. You know, sometimes this happens and it's unpredictable when it's actually going to occur and so no problem. It's great to see you. Yeah, I'm over here closer to my router

Clayton Beavers: trying to get connected. I flipped on my computer that didn't work. Let me walk in

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: here to my studio and see if we lose you. Okay maybe that's the issue. You've got too many devices connected maybe. Is it still seeing live like it's working okay?

George Irwin: I think so yeah I see your painting there remind me of that one with the...

Clayton Beavers: That one is called American Dream. Oh right, American Dream you gotta own your own living structure. Yeah so that's yeah, the TP there juxtaposed in the suburban neighborhood I heard you... I caught you talking about that while we were waiting for

George Irwin: the loading there. You got me to talk about your work from just like exactly what I experienced for a long time because I didn't have a whole lot to go on. Yeah, well as you can tell this is my first Instagram live but I did catch

Clayton Beavers: you chatting about being new to the art world so yeah there's not really a lot

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: out there on me this is very good to me. Cool! So um let's start let's

George Irwin: start there then, Flaytoner because I love to know about like where like how people get into this genre of art and in doing art in general even so when did you start painting and what were you doing up until, I don't know, when did you start doing like this kind of series of paintings? Because I feel like maybe it's only been another like past year or so. Or can you fill us in a little bit?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, you're pretty spot on there. So about 2019 it was kind of utilitarian

George Irwin: how it started for me. I was looking around my house and I thought I really

Clayton Beavers: want to start upgrading my art around the house. So I had always been an observer and admirer art, but I wanted to upgrade it a little bit. So I thought, you know looking around what's out there, what I can afford at the time, I decided just make my own art and kind of conceptualize what I would want my house my walls to look like. So i started with acrylic in 2019 and just sort of dabbling kind of learning, you know focused on just like still subjects or like just a cowboy, just a horse. And then doing all that pretty quickly like all these ideas started coming to mind, partly from, like I said, being an observer of art, always being in galleries. But there were some things inside of me that I didn't quite know were trolling around inside my mind and inside my head, but pretty quickly those starting coming out. So 2020 started diving deeper into it and then in 21 decided

Clayton Beavers: I'm gonna get really serious about this. And so January of 2021, I took my first class in the oil painting, and that's kind of led to more of the themed kind of pieces you said self-contained, like the three that are in New Western Talon at least, trying to bring out more of those thematic elements in my oil paintings.

George Irwin: Very cool, that's so cool Clayton. There's a few things I wanna touch on and go back to what you said. One of them being like how cool is it that you were thinking about, I would love to have better, you know maybe not even better, but like more meaningful artwork in my home like on my walls where I look at every day. And you're like well, you know I don't necessarily have the means to become a collector of the pieces that I want but let me just give it a shot and see if I can make something cool. That is so amazing.

Clayton Beavers: Exactly how it started.

George Irwin: That's so cool. Can I ask you what you were doing prior to, like up until that point? Like professionally or otherwise other hobbies or anything? How did, did you just like, I'll try and paint? Or were you like otherwise sort of artistically inclined?

Clayton Beavers: Probably artistic from a young age. That's not the word I would have used to describe it until recently. But, you know, not trained in art. I wasn't doing anything professionally that lended to art. You know, I studied business in college, got a nine-to-five at a corporate career, working the energy business. So that's what I was doing up until 2019, 2020.

George Irwin: And sort of in my bio, right?

Clayton Beavers: You read about how I've kind of been around with my job at the time And I had wanted to return home to Oklahoma for quite a while. Um, and so I think that getting into art was part of that pool, but I didn't know it at the time. So with 2020, um, you know, by the time I've kind of started dabbling in art, 2020 comes along. Um, my company offered me the chance to start working remote. So I jumped at that and I actually left where I was working in Austin came home to Ocohoma in 2020, Worked remote stayed here and then at the end of 20 my company wanted me to return back to like the office You know more than nine to five and I told them that hey, I finally got back to Oklahoma remotes working great I'd rather stay here. They weren't really down for that. So I left the company decided to stay

Clayton Beavers: And that's when they all culminated in like early 21. I didn't have a job. So i just go deep into painting And like I said, I wasn't trained in art so I took that as my opportunity. Like I got connected with two teachers here locally, dove into classes twice a week, started building an art community and actually where I started learning to paint the Institute here in Edmond, Oklahoma they actually were launching a new festival that year. So I signed up for it with some of my early stuff and got right into it and that kind help me build a momentum of getting instant feedback for where I'm at and where I want

George Irwin: to head with my art. That's really awesome, I think getting that feedback from a group like a festival crowd early on in your career has got to be really helpful if you're open to that kind of giving the publics opinion. I think that's awesome. And it was the Vibe Festival in Edmond? Yes sir. Yeah, it looked like you had a great... that is one piece I found out about it. You had a great setup there with some of your pieces.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, I mean it's as simple as like googling

George Irwin: what's an art festival supposed to look like

Clayton Beavers: and then just try to make it happen so.

George Irwin: Fantastic. So I have a couple questions. I guess beyond sort of what we talked about today or to date two minutes. That would be like... Okay, so one of the things that you have in your statement is how being away from Oklahoma where you were, I guess came of age. In Austin and Houston and New England. I guess maybe working in the energy industry. How that, I just incubated some of these ideas that you're expressing in this body of work. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, and I think it starts even before that right?

Clayton Beavers: I mean growing up, I always played cowboys and Indians. I used to sleep in my cowboy boots have actually got a pair right there. Oh yeah. But like I had a red pair growing up. I mean, I used asleep in those and my mom threw them out

George Irwin: cause I wore holes in them right?

Clayton Beavers: Like that's what I loved and being here at Oklahoma

George Irwin: I mean it's definitely a part of the culture right?

Clayton Beavers: Very similar to where you're from.

George Irwin: But as I got older, right?

Clayton Beavers: My individuality has I got an older whatever. I started gravitating away from that. And by the time I was in college, moved to Houston for my first job, I didn't even own a pair of cowboy boots. And then I left my job in Houston or same company, but took a different role and went out to New England. And I got out there and I remember walking around like New York City or New England, or the guy on my floor where I worked and he's in cowboy boots and he used to be in New York city and this guy from Ohio and not that they can't

George Irwin: but it was like wait, why am I not?

Clayton Beavers: And so, like readdressing those questions and moving away from where I was from

George Irwin: and what I thought was normal and questioning why is that normal

Clayton Beavers: started, I think, cultivating these questions. And then, you know, I try to answer them. But I think that was probably the start of it.

George Irwin: Gotcha. So like the start of it being like almost at like kind of that moment where you're like who's this New York guy wearing cowboy boots? and why am I not, and why do I care about that? And especially it seems like growing up in Oklahoma you have significant exposure to Comanche and Muscogee and all the different Indian nations. And is that just something that just kinda like who was just present in your thought process?

Clayton Beavers: No, I think it definitely is like relevant to where I am right so I think in answering those questions it's like you know the Cowboys the natives they still exist all around us here at home right and my teacher that I learned from he paints working Cowboys. So I don't have any relation to working Cowboys but I'm around them all the time Riley even I take class in Guthrie that's an old like historic Oklahoma cowboy town. So cowboys still roll into town to this day while we're sitting there painting at the gallery. It's all around us, it's a part of our culture here. I think that was just maybe the environment right and then when i start to navigate these questions again not that some guy in New York can't wear boots but yeah

George Irwin: Yeah, it's like why am I not?

Clayton Beavers: And then around that time I took my first cross country road trip on Route 66. So I flew down to New York, landed in Chicago, me and my three best friends and we rented a car with no plan and just drove out to LA. So leading up to that trip I was like well I'm gonna need a pair of cowboy boots

George Irwin: so I'm not going across the desert one night.

Clayton Beavers: So it's there but it wasn't for a long time So in bringing that back in, I think that's just like maybe a segue to like, that's one example of how the questions came about

George Irwin: and what I wanted to introduce in my paying. That's cool. Yeah, I think like there's something about like anytime you feel like you may be in a situation where there are rattlesnakes right near you that don't even know, doesn't hurt to have a pair of cowboy boots on.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, and like just east of Meteor Crater, I mean we got out and looked at an old like ghost town I mean, I stepped over a snake. It's like a four foot long snake. Didn't even see it. So it's like yeah, you're gonna wear your boots.

George Irwin: That's cool. So when you started painting, you just got some acrylic paints and we're like, and some brushes are like let's figure out how this works and then you start taking classes after that or how is that kind of like the visual and technical side of things. How has that progressed?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, it definitely was like just get the paint and it seems so complex in the beginning but just get the paint and sort of study and practice my favorite artist right. Copy their work. It's the same as the way you learn to play the piano, you copy the grades. So I definitely had from following artists online influences that I was like, I'm gonna start there. And there were some moments and some glimpses where I was like oh, that kinda came out better than I really thought it was going on, like there might be something to this and then there were plenty where I'm walking straight down to the trash. So that was the initial progression and from there it was okay,

George Irwin: when I said about late 20 or early 21 where I say yeah, I am gonna dive into this

Clayton Beavers: that's how I was well, I've gotta get technically sound in what I'm doing here so that's the classes come in and it's like, you know being early on anything. It's so fun to paint something and 30 days you look back and you're like well I'm going to touch up this and work on that. And so you know it's that constant question of when is a painting done but as this earlier part of my career where the growth I feel was sort of exponential, it's fun to look back. You can really see one painting next to the other. In

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: my mind what I would do differently or improve something. Sure, you mentioned some key

George Irwin: influences and like to this point in your career like I immediately see like Logan Maxwell Hajjaj Tracy Stuckey maybe and I mean and it decides that may be like kind of like a host of others why have Dixon, I don't know who are some of your influences that you look to?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah. I mean you mentioned Dixon. I don t know an artist who won't cite Dixon as some person but like definitely just in clouds like you know I think when an artist has a term that it's Dixon style clouds or Maggiore style clouds like they've done something right and so Right now I'm really working on just like getting my clouds right. So, I mean, I'm working on Dixon a lot. I think the top book on my stack there is probably Dixon. Um, but also like, you know, Brett Allen Johnson. I love his cloud. So I think somewhere between like a Dixon and a Brett Allen Johnson for clouds, like yeah, maybe that's the future of where I'm headed. And I would love to achieve that. Um, But yeah, Logan Maxwell, uh, Tracy Stuckey definitely top influences for me. Matt McCormick, maybe a little lesser known, still one of the top guys, love his work.

Clayton Beavers: And of course like Billy Schenk I think Billy Scenk was probably the first one where my view of Western art was always in the traditional sense like you know

George Irwin: I love all these artists and it's here we have the Cabot Museum up the road right? But when I saw the work of Billy Scensk he writes directly on a canvas which might clarify

Clayton Beavers: message or sometimes make it a little more ambiguous. That work to me was like I think changing in my perception of Western art so I don't quite write on the canvas yet, I don t like to always answer the question directly but Billy

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: Schenk is a huge influence in my art. I can see that, that makes a lot of sense

George Irwin: especially you know you talk about somebody who brings the Western genre topics like into pop culture, you know straight up with pop art a lot of time for him. And intellect that you know a more national conversation that's really cool. I mean i think that's kind of what i see you know also the same thing yeah Tracy Stuckey I think is doing that a lot with his like fashion and western Americana mashups. And then I think what you're doing with your suburban lifestyle American Indian juxtapositions is really interesting. Another element in your pieces that I thought was cool is, I mean, in this one behind you, you've got the tricycle, you know, tumped over, I guess like, you know, which is not necessarily what I'm looking at. But like the you got the old Mustang and like a Ford Ranger or something in your other pieces. Do you have a particular like vehicle affinity

George Irwin: or was that just sort of like a sort of random choice?

Clayton Beavers: Definitely not random. I think I've owned like three Mustangs in my life and like pick up trucks so I mean all four words So that's not that's random But I think specific to the painting like if you look at a faster horse, which is in New Western Talent Obviously the cowboy riding his horse and he's you know crossed with the idea Maybe the first time he saw a Mustang or a car for the first time. You know, he's gonna maybe trade in so he's going to trade in his Mustang for

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: a Mustang right? Yeah. So that's intentional. Yeah I mean I thought that was really cool

George Irwin: and then yeah and then having the truck and the other one I thought it was cool too. It's interesting to see I think there's some kind of weird... I don't know if it's weird. I think it's interesting to see like vehicles in the western genre of art. Also showing we have Shin Fanon from Austin and she just does hyper-realistic vehicle paintings, mostly cars and trucks but she's got a train and a motorcycle and a car in this particular exhibit. Like, yeah there's certainly like the wide open road and like driving, you know, is not too far removed from the Western ideas I guess.

Clayton Beavers: I think your spot on there if I can jump in it, it's sort of... And this might be a little too far into a couple of my next paintings. I'm always really guarded about my next idea. I don't know why, but so you know the West evolves around us and these ideas aren't new to me. Like the Monument Valley has been here how long right it's going to be here a while longer And we sort of just pick our way through and have our time here We were on horseback for a little while and now we're driving Mustangs And I guess we're gonna drive Teslas in the future whatever it's gonna be like we're sort of getting through this and the West hasn't changed. So I think like that's probably a big theme in my art, and the open road and the Americana of that is there. Yeah, that was a thought there. Like I think you're spot-on with

George Irwin: that. Well it kind of... I'm just thinking as you were saying this, it sort of circles back to your comment about taking the road trip out Route 66 with your friends. And that, you know I think for so many people road trips out west are so inspiring because for those of us who don't have the we don't live there necessarily it's still just such an inspiring like thing to see all these different landscapes and like especially traveling by car you see you can see so many of them in such a short period of time and inspiration to start to like, I don't know, like overflow, I guess. And maybe that's why we have so many

Clayton Beavers: Western landscape artists but... Well, I think what's cool about that is that it still happens today, right? Like Dixon and his house artists they went out west on a lot of state and painted it right. But that still happens today. Like when I first started looking at Brett Allen Johnson's paintings and he's got these you know silky-looking foothills at the bottom of like Utah landscapes and I was like, oh that's very stylized. But in my mind it was like that's you know it stylized to the point of like it's not necessarily real and then on one of my last trips to Utah I'm out there looking and I see those split tells I'm like no that's exactly what it looks like so I think to this day I think there's still that kind of discovery and I think that's what makes it cool. Yeah, definitely. Cool. Let's see. I'll ask you a question while you're thinking. All right, cool. We're kind of talking

Clayton Beavers: about like the evolvement of the West, right? So, I mean, what's your perception as a curator being very deep in art, the Western world, as kind of the future of painting, right. I mean are we all all headed towards Billy Sheng, Tracy Stuckey kind of art?

George Irwin: What do you think it's going to be? That's a great question. You know I haven't thought about what the overall zeitgeist painting in the West is moving towards because I feel like it's really fractured. Like not in a bad way but there are people who do like their they go out and make two planar paintings a day like hundreds a year and they're sharing their environment. There's people, there are people like yourself and Tracy and Billy who are making cultural commentary through you know, through their work and then there are also people like Maggiore who is like this weird kind of, you know sort of like a very like realist like representation of the cowboy and I mean, I guess now especially like Taos, like Western lifestyle, but also through his very contemporary Photoshop lens if he's got in his eyes or something. So it's really hard to say. There's a lot of room still, I think for a lot

George Irwin: of very traditional Western, Like the cowboy artists of America, there's a lot of room for heritage-focused, preservational depictions of the West. And then I think at the same time though, coming into a wider audience maybe does require a little bit more of like a conceptual vantage point. I can't tell you where it's going, but I can tell you that I like the perspective that you have and that's important. Yeah. So you started with acrylic and then you've been taking classes in oil and I don't remember are these oil? These three that you got on the show?

Clayton Beavers: New Western Talent is oil yes.

George Irwin: Cool, very cool. Do you have any other exhibitions or plans or anything going on following this?

Clayton Beavers: Last night I actually just had my first group show. It opened last night here locally so I took one painting there dropped it off and I actually slipped in after my nine to five and checked it out. You know, it's new to me. This is all still new to be. So I just kind of slipped in and then slipped down but I mean, it was a lot of fun So I did that last night. I'm gonna participate in two more months of the Vibes Festival in September and October, and I'm really excited about the September month for that show. So that kind of sets up like different businesses will host an artist for that night of the festival and then it's like a tear down at night.

George Irwin: But where I'm going to set up in September,

Clayton Beavers: they're letting me set up for the whole month. So I've got access to this whole building. It's a swanky real estate office. So I get to use all the wall space that I want, they've got beautiful big windows, it's a little art building. So I'm taking a lot of like new stuff and big stuff and it'll be the first time that like a lot of my art has all been seen like at once, definitely in person. So I think it's gonna be really cool because you know when you see like one of my paintings or like three in New Western Talent It's like, yeah, is this sort of a confined thing?

George Irwin: What's the whole... what is all this?

Clayton Beavers: And so I think even looking around here

George Irwin: when you walk in this room, my studio,

Clayton Beavers: the perception here, you get a lot more insight into where this is all headed to your question about what's next.

George Irwin: Yeah, very cool. Speaking of your studio and this being built as a studio tour, do you think can show us around a little bit. Yeah, what's your workspace like?

Clayton Beavers: And absolutely, I've sort of pulled here to the front to make

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: sure I got these connections. So yeah, we've had it. We've had

George Irwin: a good conversation so far. So if we lose each other, it's not the end of the world, I guess.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, I was really worried. Let me pull this off my stand here. And all right, so start over here we'll start with New

George Irwin: Western talent and I'll try not to make everybody sick. Very cool. Yeah. So you told me the name of this painting earlier too. And I just want to write out my yeah, this one is American dream. So right American dream very good. It's a

Clayton Beavers: 24 by 30. It is an oil painting, custom frame and very happy to have it in New Western Talent. So that's a thank you to you, to Tina and to Ash for judging me into the show for sure.

George Irwin: Yeah I think there's something to stay on American Dream for a minute. One of the things that makes this painting really special is not just the idea of the teepee next to the suburban houses, but the fact that you have that tricycle like tumped over there and it's like this is like the I don't know if that really is sort of like a nice like catch for the image in really, really good decision.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, that's actually kind of funny that I put that in there. And so whenever I'm like working on the painting, sketching it out, and you know my parents are kind of in and out and my mom was looking at an early phase of the painting and she's like, you know what this needs? And you know, this side was just sort of the sidewalk. She's like, This needs a tricycle right there. And I said, Why, why did you say that? And she said, I just felt like it needed something like a red tricycle. And I've said well, you haven't seen that, like because I'm kind of hiding that as like a big reveal but that's going to be in the painting. And so that was like a moment where I was like, You know, I, I'm doing something right? Like somebody had an idea now and that's my mother's so you always take

George Irwin: that for what it's true. Yeah well you know I guess they say mother's always right so yeah so it's definitely got to be in there then. Yeah good job listening

Clayton Beavers: cool. But panning around here and I can go as fast or slow as you want if you want to focus on just New Western Talent stuff.

George Irwin: No let's see at all we've got the giant. Yeah so that's Liz from giant

Clayton Beavers: definitely like a series I was working on for a little while love that movie just doesn't influence on like the West coming into a modern age. These are actually just acrylic right now, but that's Gary Cooper and John Wayne. Yeah. So they're kind of in a phase where they're ready to go either to oil or to be finished down. We'll see. They might not acrylic.

George Irwin: So those two, like the way that you see those two right now are as like Grisé underpainting in acrylic?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, you know, in my learning and process here it's like going back and forth and doing a painting like this and getting it to a form of completion and then starting anew. And it's well I need with what I know now I need to back it up a little bit and just work my values. So doing that underpaining with just a value study in acrylic It's just kind of like the next step towards, I need to start from the beginning with a lot of time and effort in these. So yeah, I mean, I think very kindly walking around that, I think you see the difference

George Irwin: in sort of those paintings and that one, right?

Clayton Beavers: Moving on, this would probably be like a very stucky kind of painting and actually I sent this to two buddies and I was like, hey check out this painting I'm working on. And like that next day or even the same day it might've been Tracy Stuckey posted one

George Irwin: of his paintings on Instagram and I was like, that's exactly what I'm painting. And so I was just like, I've got to hurry up and get it out there quick right?

Clayton Beavers: But now it's just sort of stayed like this but you know, kind of the Marlboro man on the billboard and maybe an Insta model. I don't know quite who she is, but she's posed in front of what would be the Marbboro man. So working... I've got a title in mind for that one. I'll kind of save that for review.

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: Sure, these are cool.

Clayton Beavers: These are just kinda like they were part of the Liz Taylor Giant series I was working on but didn't really wanna do them to sort of a life looking way. So then I also started working in a little bit of collage actually after watching a lot of Vanessa Compton's work. Another New Western Talent artist for anybody listening so you go check out Vanessa Compton.

George Irwin: Her Instagram is at Crenshaw Studios for anyway.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, thank you. I could not remember the name. I'll skip this next one maybe come back to it. There's another John Wayne that's going to go to a local show probably in August. Skip that one. Here is of course a faster horse which is a New Western Talent. And so this is what you're talking about with, you know, the red Mustang. It's actually the second time that I've painted a red Mustang, one sold maybe before I even

George Irwin: post it on Instagram.

Clayton Beavers: I can't remember but...

George Irwin: So what um, you mentioned you had a couple Mustangs. What Mustangs did you drive?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, so I had my first one was like a 2000 and it was red. And then I had a 2006 and then a 2008, and those were both black. So the second one I took all over New England and explored and road trips so a lot of memories in that one but unfortunately had to let it go due to some transmission trouble. So yeah, the Mustang and Ford are big part of like bringing sort of modern culture and mixing with like the old west. And then another New Western Talent piece here is Park Down Back.

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: Yeah, I love that one.

Clayton Beavers: And I think like you know the questions will be what they are with some of these and I always thought it was like a little bit cliche or forced to hear artists talk about like oh well I can't tell you what it means because it limits the idea of it. And like now after painting this, it's like I really can't tell you what this means because I get it now. So I look at Edmond Vibe someone came up and was looking at American Dream and they had a totally different interpretation of that painting that I really have not thought through just like they were so focused on the tricycle and maybe the child who was writing it. And so yeah, I think that's very cool.

George Irwin: There's a lot of that I feel like in this, you know, you're talking about before what you didn't want to disclose like works that you have sort of in process whether they're I mean, like works and you have like sort of like incubate maybe the very early stages of process like because you know, I don't know reason a B or C but I think like some of that may be and I don t know if this is your the way it works for you. But like a lot of times for artists, the meaning of things is revealed through the making. And And, you know, it may not be like a super clear meaning. Maybe it is just like a lot of... It raises a lot questions. But that is one of the things that is so important about putting artwork out there is that you are putting in these subconscious and it's admirable because you're being very vulnerable, like putting your subconscious self out into the world for other people

George Irwin: to interpret. But at the same time, it's something that society really needs. So that's really cool that you're doing that.

Clayton Beavers: Yeah I think you're spot on again. I think like maybe I set out or sketch something and go to paint something and I have an idea of what it's going to be and then through the making of it, like I start asking questions that I know were there

George Irwin: which is how I said I began in the first place right?

Clayton Beavers: So I think in each painting, yeah, I still do that.

George Irwin: Yeah, very cool.

Clayton Beavers: And then maybe a couple more here. Here's one we were kind of talking about maybe some Dixon style clouds.

George Irwin: Got you Dixon clouds and Monument Valley in there? Cool. And then one more like I've kind of hinted at this one on Instagram but

Clayton Beavers: maybe a full shot here because I did... we talked about Billy Schenk a little bit so This is actually a tribute to a Billy Schent painting Okay. And then if you go search Billy Schenk, Jeff sat and stared at the passing of the West. You'll see a lot of iconography in like this painting compared to that one. So still a working title on this one but again Billy Schent was like huge for me in the beginning and so up to the level that I am at now I was ready to kind of tackle one in my own terms and just kind of do a tribute to that kind of influence.

George Irwin: Yeah, I love that sign on there too,

Clayton Beavers: the days run together. Yeah, and I kinda talked about writing on the canvas. It's not really something that I've done yet. I try to use more ambient items like a billboard or say a marquee sign or something. I have sketched a couple that I might get to the point where I'm writing directly on the canvas. I think there's definitely a place for it, it's just not something I've done yet.

George Irwin: Yeah and I mean, I think that's something Billy does in some of his pieces and other ones he doesn't and sometimes you can say a lot with the title and I think your titles help to frame the concept of your piece as well at this point. A lot of artists don't even go that far They just let the work have a very literal title and it's left in that realm. But yeah, but I think having the titles like you do are a good way to angle the perception

Clayton Beavers: of the piece a little bit. Titles are very important to my art. I kind of set out with a concept or maybe I have a title in mind from the beginning And then I try to like, how would I paint that or bring that idea about and kind of go from there and maybe full context on that. Like I talk about say my teacher's art compared to mine. His name is Steve Bolden by the way. So he's a local painter. He's got a TV show actually called Art of the Cowboy

George Irwin: where he goes around and documents working ranches today.

Clayton Beavers: today. So he goes around Texas, Oklahoma, a lot, Colorado, Kansas. Um, so you know, he documents working Cowboys that's how he grew up like he is a cowboy and like I mentioned like that's not the influence I have. So instead like my influences are just wanting to be a cowboy like I mean I've seen a ton of Westerns right? That's how I grew up watching westerns to this day like once a week I go to my grandpa's house and just watch westerns. So on the screen those influences are kind of where I started, so maybe it's like a quick joke or a quick remark from a cowboy and oh that was funny or clever how would I do a painting based on that? And that's kind of like where the concept starts and then like a title for that becomes

George Irwin: very important. Very cool, so does the concept start with like with the actual title most of the time or is it just like an idea that becomes a title later?

Clayton Beavers: I think it's a fair mix above it's probably 50-50. Cool, that's I'm just

George Irwin: curious about that because you know like when I was writing songs in Nashville versus when I wasn't Austin playing and rock and roll bands like the Austin Rock and Roll approach is like you just rock out and get a vibe and then you You know, maybe you bring a song in ahead of time but it's not like... I don't know. You're not trying to get like a number one hit usually. And then the Nashville thing is like you get together with like two or three other writers and you don't start writing anything until you have a title that's done.

Clayton Beavers: Oh really?

George Irwin: There are exceptions of course but that sort of standard approach is like alright let's pitch titles to each other for 30 minutes and come up with this. That's curious to me about people starting paintings.

Clayton Beavers: So then, in your opinion, I'm going

George Irwin: to put you on the spot, did Nashville kill country? I don't know. I mean it's its own Nashville country pop stuff because it sounds like one thing right now. I don' t know. You know, I've come to realize I like the idea of Western. Maybe there is country and western, and now it's like Nashville's country Western is like all the cool stuff.

Clayton Beavers: Even Dylan went to Nashville, so I...

George Irwin: Yeah, it's true. I mean there's lots of great stuff comes out of Nashville. So anyway. All right Clayton, well you know I think probably should wrap it up and I'll see if I can stitch some of these together but this is gonna be the live for the record where we actually got to talk. And thank you so much for chatting with me and showing us around some of your pieces today. I guess, I was about to just wrap things up but like do you just work there on the easel or what's your workspace like?

Clayton Beavers: Yeah, so this... I'll give you a full shot.

George Irwin: There we go.

Clayton Beavers: I'm working out of my home so this is the dedicated room. That's nice. And so I've got three easels that I stand at. And then, you know, sometimes a table easel just whatever I need the room for but I'm working out of a home studio. So it's all right here. You know there's another space where I prep canvas, another space

George Irwin: Where I do a lot of work in Photoshop to these compositions.

Clayton Beavers: And yeah, so this is the space. Like this is where I work.

George Irwin: Cool and then like you've got like the can lighting up above and that's pretty good and diffuse to get something on your.

Clayton Beavers: I'm actually remodeling this house. So I moved into this house and the first room I got the remodel was this room dedicated to art. So I did put recess lighting into the corners here here where I can control the temperature and really set the left room. So that was important to me, started here and then the rest of the house is just sort of a moving target. Yeah. So yeah, it's I'm working out of this space for now. And then the idea is that someday probably rent this house out to hopefully supplement my income as I'm diving deeper into art and then have my more permanent like dedicated studio.

George Irwin: Very cool. So do you set the, like you said, you can control the temperature? Do you set that to daylight sort of settings while you're working or how does that... what do you choose there? I've used the daylight setting up until

Clayton Beavers: the last couple weeks. I just flipped it to a warmer setting all but that other corner for me. I keep going kind of cool but I'm just kind of playing with it. There's a lot of red that comes into this room so it hasn't affected the paintings like when I do take them into a gallery or daylight setting they all look great but it's like while I'm painting it or when I go to photograph it mostly, I get a lot of red into the finished painting. Weird.

George Irwin: Yeah everybody's got their own lighting issues so I was just kind of curious about that cool. Alright Clayton well thank you so much for showing us around thank you everyone for tuning in to this and for sticking around for those of you who stuck with us through the connection issues and Clayton it's a pleasure to show your work in New Western Talent and I am

George Irwin / Clayton Beavers: looking forward to watching your career progress. Thanks for having me, it's an honor to be involved so I appreciate you. Yeah cool all right talk to you later

Clayton Beavers: take care of the way. Adios

Live intro / preamble—June 10, 2022

Watch the original video on Instagram (01:46)

Participants: George Irwin

George Irwin: Coffee. Alright, hey everybody! Doing another live Instagram studio visit. I said those first two words backwards but I think you get the point. Today we're going to be talking to Clayton Beavers in Oklahoma City who is one of our artists in New Western Talent on western.gallery. Clayton has some really cool pieces. I think this three piece body of work he submitted for the show might be a self-contained unit, as he's been developing as an artist.

George Irwin: I'm gonna ask him about that and I'm really curious to hear about his process, his career, what he's doing and I hope that you will enjoy. I'm going to see if I can get Clayton on here right now. Oh wait there we go, invite. Thank you guys for tuning in. Hopefully this will be a fun little chat. Tomorrow also we're doing another visit with Drew, and I'm not even sure how to say it last night. This happens a lot for me. Drew Macias? Macias... I don't know. But tomorrow morning at 11am central, 9am pacific, we're going to visit Drew in his studio.

George Irwin: But right now we're going to be visiting Clayton Beavers and I thought I invited him, I don't know if it worked. We'll try again. Hey hello again everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I'm really curious to hear about this. Clayton, I guess you know like it's... I tried to research these before I come on and do lives with these artists. If I don' t know them very well, I try and do some background kind of stuff.