Local Aspen artist shares her craft with community

For almost three decades, Aspenite Amy Beidleman was crunching numbers as a bank chief executive officer in Aspen. Now, she’s teaching students to paint.

Beidleman teaches one class per month at the Red Brick Center for the Arts. This month, “Adult Watercolor: Discover the Magic of Mushrooms” will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Oct. 15, at 110 E. Hallam St. The $48 fee includes all supplies and instruction. 

“I just feel so lucky. It’s like, pinch me. I’m doing something I truly love, and I get to share. That’s why I teach. I love sharing the joy of watercolor,” she said.

Next month, she’ll offer a “Winter River Landscape” class, with a view from the Roaring Fork Valley looking up at Aspen Mountain.

Arriving in Aspen in 1978, her career thrived in the financial industry at two local banks — Timberline Bank and Aspen Bancshares Pitkin County Bank and Trust Company — before retiring in 2014.

With time to reflect, she found she had a real longing within her to take up watercolor painting. As this passion grew, she became a self-taught working artist, art teacher, and greeting card creator.

Teaching came easy for Beidleman. 

“I had taught other classes before, like the principles of banking and things related to business,” she said. 

She’s been teaching art at the Red Brick Center for the Arts since 2018.

She explains that she likes to alternate her classes, featuring subjects like fish, birds, or landscape, and bringing in 3D objects whenever possible. She also shares artistic styles from other painters, so students do not feel they have to mimic her vision.

“Mushrooms are a big deal right now. You know, people are using them for different reasons, and so I think there’s just a bigger interest,” she said. “The reason I picked mushrooms is accessibility — it’s affordable to get a mushroom to practice on, and people are comfortable with them.” 

Beidleman also started a greeting card business.

“The greeting card is my base,” she said. 

She credits her friend Laura Laughren, the buyer at Pitkin County Dry Goods, for encouraging her to sell her cards, and Pitkin County Dry Goods served as her first retail location.

Beidleman’s cards can now be found in many stores around Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley, including Carl’s Pharmacy, Aspen Eclectic, and Explore Books.

“It was a really nice way to get into the valley — painting local landscapes and things that we all love. I try to relate my art back to nature that we have, which is why we are here, and why we work so hard to be here,” she said.

She offers 3 ½ by 5 inch cards available in singles or sets. Her 12-card sets are the most popular. Her designs vary, from landscapes with blank insides to bird-themed cards with cute sayings, and her charity cards showcasing churches.

She also serves as a volunteer curator at the Aspen Chapel Gallery.

Her watercolors are on display in a locals’ art show titled “Tell It Like It Is,” which will run through Nov. 15 at Aspen Chapel Gallery, located at 77 Meadowood Dr. and open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show, in partnership with Aspen Journalism, explores themes of truth and freedom of speech.

Between monthly classes, her greeting card business, gallery curation, and travel, Beidleman’s second chapter appears as fruitful as the first.

“I love trying to relate my art back to nature,” she said, “that’s why we work so hard to be here.” 

To register and for more information, visit redbrickaspen.com/events-art-exhibitions-calendar/adult-watercolor-2025-10-15 or aspenchapelgallery.org/our-team.