Season's Change No 2 Artwork

Bettina has an innate need to create. She says she is happiest when creating her art. Bettina is an abstract expressionist painter. She has lived and worked in Central Kentucky, Virginia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She now resides on Saint Simons Island in Georgia. Bettina has been inspired throughout my life by artists who practiced a painterly style, such as the great Impressionists and by artists who practice the freedom to explore and express in such a personal and profound way, such as those who were part of the modern Abstract Expressionists movement during the 1930’s - 1960’s. At this point in her artistic career, she is particularly inspired by the women of the Abstract Expressionist movement who did not get the recognition they deserved just because they were women. She refers to the Ninth Street Women (from the book of the same name by Mary Gabriel). Bettina loves the journey of the artistic process. She begins most canvases with layers of color that are improvised, abstract and even chaotic. Through a process of addition and subtraction Bettina brings each painting closer to balance with sensitivity and attention to detail. In her process, she tries to look for the good in what she thinks are mistakes. Bettina says, “I will let them be for a time to see if they can become an interesting component. Much of the time with a little editing they can become a nice surprise”. Bettina strives to create some amount of push / pull plus lost and found in her edges. Bettina’s edges can appear muted where color overlaps and the underlying mark may remain slightly visible. She also has concerns for brushwork and mark making which she uses a variety of tools to create. This can affect the mood, movement, and energy of the piece. Bettina says, “Sometimes my process is full of trials and tribulations and often the work goes through construction to destruction and back again and finally to a feeling of resolve”. Bettina’s paintings vary in style from exploring abstract shape relationships, to gestures and action, to a mixture of the two. Her subject matter is always drawn from an emotion, the natural world or something inspirational in her life. She prefers to work in oil paint and sticks, mixed media, and uses some of her photography for reference. In 2022, Bettina began painting albino alligators. She works from photographs and from seeing and photographing the non-albino twelve-foot alligator on the back of her property on Saint Simons Island.