Chloé Marie Burk has centered her life around art and horses. The French-born American artist brings western scenes to life, using movement and vibrant earth tones. Burk didn’t set out to live in the U.S., but a series of opportunities led her to eventually settle in the West. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to study and master her craft. Burk is represented by Parsons Fine Art in Taos, New Mexico. Her showings always sell out quickly, and she is supported by collectors — a serious mark of success for a professional artist. When she isn’t painting, you can find her focused on her other passion, training and racing barrel horses.
An Artistic Upbringing
Art has always been in Burk’s life. Growing up, her paternal grandmother was a painter, pianist, and opera director. Horses have always been there too, with her dad working as a jockey rider and farrier, and Burk riding English jumping horses throughout her youth. She first visited the U.S. at 24. “My best friend and I just wanted to visit,” Burk shared. In 2013 she returned, spending her time traveling and painting. On the last week of her trip she met Anthony and Brandi Katagas. Soon she started working for the family to make extra money, and they helped her secure a work visa. Anthony Katagas is an Oscar-winning movie producer, and the family was incredibly supportive of Burk. “They always believed in me and valued my work and who I am,” she recalled.
Burk spent the next three years living in New York City. Her choice to stay in the U.S. wasn’t calculated, which is a common theme throughout her life. “That’s how I live my whole life. I don’t like to force things,” Burk said. “I didn’t have a goal back then. I was just finding my way through life.” After three years in New York, she was ready to get away from the chaos of the city. With $30 in her pocket and a suitcase, Burk landed in Austin, Texas, quickly finding her way to a more rural area. From there, she moved to New Mexico, where she met her husband, Thom, and started her journey in Western art. The couple has since moved between New Mexico, Montana, and Texas. Thom has worked as a roofing contractor, and most recently, founded Texas Fence and Outdoors — a custom building, deck, and fence company — alongside his best friend, Steve Cowsert.
While moving to the U.S. wasn’t something Burk set out to do, she believes her journey here didn’t happen by accident. “It was always meant to be,” Burk shared. “It’s just a continuation of the life I started back in France. I found a similar life, just in a different culture.”
Developing Her Style
Western art wasn’t Burk’s first focus, but she immediately knew she wanted to pursue it after opening a Frederick Remington book. “For the first 10 years of really becoming a painter, I was doing more folk art,” Burk explained. I was exploring and knew I hadn’t found my subject yet. A friend had a book about Remington. I randomly picked it off the shelf, and I had never seen anything like it before.” Having moved to Taos, New Mexico, Burk was also encountering Western art throughout the community. She learned about the Taos Society of Artists, an organization of visual arts established in 1915. The small group of professional artists from the East had made Taos a focus of their work, sending their paintings across the country. This brought new audiences to Western art and made Taos one of the most important art communities in the country. Today, the work of these founding artists can be viewed in museums and through archives. Burk studied these works, and with inspiration surrounding her in the New Mexico landscape, she started to hone in on her style.
New Mexico also led Burk to a friendship with Ashley Rolshoven-Loveless, the director and co-owner of Parsons Fine Art. “When we met we became friends right away,” Burk recalled. “She loved my studies and told me to take a year and work on it. So that’s what I did, and I became really passionate about it. Living in Taos I was really in the right place to become acquainted with Western art and learn it.” When her first show at Parsons sold out, Burk was both shocked and extremely inspired to move forward. She has continued to hold shows at Parsons, each selling out quickly.
Style comes naturally to Burk. She studied fashion in school and has worked as a horse-savvy model for various Western brands. Finding a unique style in her art has taken time, and through dedicated work, she has landed on something truly her own. Studying painters like Remington was immensely helpful, but Burk is always conscious of how these studies affect her own painting; she always made sure she wasn’t simply copying someone else’s work. “You have to keep a very cold mind in these studies because otherwise you won’t find your style, but just “a” style.”
“I worked hard to find my style,” Burk continued. “For years, I went through many phases to finally find it. Around four years ago I really pinned down what I wanted to do, and now I’m just refining it, year after year.”
Daily life working horses and living in the rural West serve as inspiration for Burk’s paintings. “I am in contact with it every day,” she said. Burk calls on memories and elements of her surroundings to create subjects for her work. “All of my paintings come from my imagination. I don’t have any photo references. I just have an idea and work around it. I don’t really make a plan for each painting. If I’m going to make a series for a show, I’m going to have a larger idea of what I want,” she explained.
Her medium of choice is oil on linen, and all of these works are sold exclusively through Parsons or select auctions. Burk’s studies, pencil drawings, and watercolors are occasionally available through her website or social media. Her partnership with Parsons has propelled Burk’s career forward and connected her with the fine art world. Many collectors of Burk’s work have become friends. “I’m completely humbled by it,” she said. “When I sold out my first show I was blown away. There are collectors who have walls of my paintings, and it’s incredible. I don’t really know how to describe it, because it makes me speechless.”
A Passion for Horsemanship
Burk’s friendship with Rolshoven also led her to barrel racing. Burk jumped in the truck with her for a race and immediately fell in love with the sport. “Not long after, I bought my first barrel horse. I am self-taught and have been blessed to meet a lot of people down that road who gave me pointers,” Burk shared. She has since gone all in on the sport, training her own horses and traveling to races. Currently, she has a young gelding by Corona Cartel called Hawk, and an older rope horse turned barrel horse, named Bartender.
Burk currently lives in Texas, her husband Thom’s home state, which allows her to ride year-round. Training horses goes hand-in-hand with art, from building her schedule throughout the year to finding inspiration. “With horsemanship, you are never through with learning. Especially if you train your own horses, you are going to learn for your whole life,” she said.
Horses are a theme in almost all of Burk’s paintings, and being around them every day feeds her work. “When I started training my horses I really enjoyed the process. It became a really strong part of my life, and I can’t see my life without it. Horses complement my art,” she shared.
Burk is building the life that she wants, forging her own creative, unconventional path. “The main thing I enjoy is the freedom,” she concluded. “I’ve always wanted to work for myself. I get to live on my own schedule and am not dependent on anything else. I get to create my life with my hands, both with art and horses.”
-Article by Lilly Platts, Photos Courtesy of Chloé Marie Burk
