A talented and successful painter, who settled in Sonoita, Arizona, Duane was raised in Virginia, Minnesota, Iron Range country, where one of his early paintings was a commissioned mural depicting the history of the mining industry of that area. He took the $3000. he earned from that project and went to New York City, where he did not achieve the quick success he expected but won a poster contest of the Museum of Modern Art.

Later he served in the Air Force and started a comic strip called "Cokey" for the base newspaper, and it was eventually syndicated. Following his discharge, he stayed with commercial art for awhile and then after moving to Tucson, Arizona, he became interested in painting the western scenes th...