Carol Beesley has been fascinated by the American landscape all of her life, and she is well-known for her flamboyant paintings that honor the scenery. With hues of pink, chartreuse, and turquoise, the landscape is enlivened on her canvas. She says she's always loved bright colors as well as the descriptions of landscapes in books and the images on old postcards. Yet, she's never painted a place that she hasn't visited herself. "These paintings are notations of what is seen in a mix with the imagination. I try to get the heart of the place and just express my experience of it," says the artist. Similar to postcards which capture the nostalgic intensity of seeing the Grand Canyon in person, Beesley sees her paintings in the same way. "My paintings are, in a sense, an extension of the experience people have. It is heightened and more intense when you remember it. And, I want people to be joyous when they see my paintings."
Beesley's style is strikingly recognizable. It is with sensitivity that she captures the formations of rocks like a portrait artist captures the folds of a face. The endless shades of blue that can only be found in an Oklahoma sky dance on the canvas. One can almost feel the warmth emitting from the rocks baking in the sun of the west. And as fantastical as the images may seem, the familiarity is inescapable for anyone who has visited the western United States.
Beesley's work has been featured in solo exhibitions around the world and honored with many awards including the 2000 Juror's Choice Award at "Art In the Woods" in Overland, Kansas; 1999 Commissioned stained glass window for the Catlett Music Center, University of Oklahoma; 1997 Commissioned painting by the College of Fine Arts, University of Oklahoma to honor Dean David G. Woods; and 1995 Painting presented by President David Boren to the Board of Regents, University of Oklahoma Center, Tulsa, OK. In 1998, Beesley completed a mural based on the geological formations of the Arbuckle Mountains found in southeastern Oklahoma. The mural was installed at the University of Oklahoma on September 14, 1998, and was dedicated to her late husband, Composer Michael Hennagin (1936-1993).