About
Michael Beckner
Michael Beckner is a painter working in a loose, abstract idiom. Using
a limited palette of greys, blues, and highlight, he returns again and
again to the large, powerful objects that shadow everyday life —
bridges, trucks, overpasses, ships.
His process begins in motion. A scene glimpsed while driving asks to
be returned to. “I'm always looking,” he says, “at the light, at how
the road goes, at the feeling it evokes.” The finished paintings hold
onto that first glance — structure suggested rather than stated, weight
carried in tone.
Beckner studied art at Berea College in Kentucky and pursued graduate
work in painting at Virginia Commonwealth University. He lives and
works in his studio, painting from the world he passes each day.