Judi Polivka Betts (b. 1936) is a painter, teacher, and author originally from LaGrange, Illinois. Betts is nationally and internationally recognized for her transparent and mid-tone landscape, urban, and marine watercolor paintings. The style of her works derives from California Scene Painting, a form of American regionalist art that flourished in the early to mid-twentieth century. She studied with artists Barse Miller, Rex Brandt, Joan Irving, and Millard Sheets. In composing her paintings, Betts chooses light, diagonal warm and cool washes as a first layer of color, using either liquid resist or paint around lighter parts and arbitrary white shapes. After the initial wash, she applies several glazes around the corners, then bursts of color in the whiter areas. Having dedicated her life to art, she considers herself not a painter who teaches, but a teacher who paints.
Betts received her Bachelor of Arts degree in metal and jewelry design from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Master of Arts degree in education from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Betts has been an art instructor for over fifty-seven years, conducting more than 430 workshops in the United States and abroad. The artist is a signature member of the American and National Watercolor Societies, and a member of the National and Salmagundi Art Clubs—all in New York. She won over 100 awards throughout her art career, specifically from the American Watercolor Society and the National Academy of Design in New York. Her works have been featured at the National Taiwan Arts Education Center, Taipei; Walt Disney’s Epcot Center, Orlando, Florida; and the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. One of her paintings was selected for an exhibition between the Japan Watercolor Federation and Watercolor USA Honor Society, displayed at the Japanese National Art Center in Tokyo from 2009 through 2010.
Website
https://judibettsaws.com
