Beau Bakken
Beau Bakken
218-988-2635
artcommissionsbybeaubakken.com
Hallock
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@Art Commissions by Beau Bakken
Beau Bakken lives in Hallock and offers visual art residencies
Beau Bakken of Hallock has been professionally creating artwork by commission since 2008. Beau has been a consistent entrant into NWMAC’s exhibits and won 1st place in the annual NW Minnesota Art Exhibit in 2011, 2014, and 2022, and given a People’s Choice award in 2025. He won the Artist of the Year in 2016. Beau was the featured artist in the Around the Farm exhibit at the NWMAC gallery in Thief River Falls and one of two featured artists in Iron and Feathers: Art of the Northwest at the Fournet Building downtown Crookston. His work consists of large outdoor murals, outdoor business signs, indoor murals, paintings and indoor wall hangings.
In middle school art class, Beau received a lesson from his Instructor Kay Rosengren that has since been a driving force of his life with art. This lesson can be summed up in one quote by her. “Paint what you see, not what you think you see.” Presumptions in our brains can get in the way of what’s actually in front of us when trying to capture the world around us. This applies to dimensions and perspectives but also color.
“We think tree trunks are brown, clouds are white, snow shadows must be grey, the sky, of course, is blue, but our world is so much more wild and colorful than those simple assumptions. For example, a recent passion of mine is to photograph what would normally be boring grey grain elevators in the morning sunlight and paint them in their true warm oranges and cold blues.”
Using his favorite quote from his childhood art teacher, Beau has taught children skills in visual painting and will continue to enjoy passing these learned lessons on to current and future generations when given the opportunity.
Artist Beau Bakken
Drawing with Beau
Overview of Residency:
Students will participate in discussions of how to visually perceive the world around them and be given time to create drawings of their own. The first drawing would be a still life from their own perspective, the second would be of an individual favorite thing. The goal is to give students a “how” and a “why” to create visual art.
Age/Grade Level: Targeting K-6 grades
Length of Residency: 3 to 5 days, One session each day, Approximately an hour each session
Max group size: 20
Can accommodate multiple groups each day.
Content of Sessions
Session 1:
Beau will begin by having students look around the room and outside through windows and find anomalies in color and brightness. Likely indoor white window trim will be darker than tree trunks outside the window. The sun may be casting orange and yellow hues on a classroom wall. Beau and students talk about color and light. The second principle Beau will address is how dimensions work. A student will be given blocks to make a random structure in the center of the classroom. Preferably students will be arranged in a circle around the still life. Students will be taught to look at the structure from their individual perspectives and recreate the image in all three dimensions. At session end, students will be encouraged to bring a favorite thing that represents them to draw this in future sessions.
Session 2-5:
Beau will share his personal definition of art — Expression through Creation. Students will be taught that their art doesn’t have to be generic bowls of fruit or landscapes. They will be encouraged to draw a detailed picture of what they really like — a favorite comic book character or plush toy or Pokemon card. Beau will show examples of personal childhood artwork and challenge students to draw a picture that is expressive of their own heart. Ideally, they have two or three sessions to detail in a nice drawing of this personally meaningful thing.
Materials needed
Plenty of paper and a box of color pencils per student. Minimum 24 colors each box. A pencil sharpener per student.