"Today we can consider the artist Bette Ridgeway as the one and only true heir of Paul Jenkins: her mentor and teacher. Ridgeway's painting is dynamic and rhythmic; like the most “enlightened” of contemporary composers, Bette traces on canvas what is her ideal score. There is a tacit harmony of color and movement which, through the elegance of the castings, leads the viewer to question the true meaning of art". ~ Dr. Salvatore Russo, art critic and curator, Effetto Arte Foundation, Rome, Italy.
Bette Ridgeway, acclaimed for her light-filled, large-scale poured canvas paintings, has spent the last fifty years perfecting a technique that has earned her both national and international recognition along the way. Her focus is on pure color. She suspends her canvas on supports then pours layers of acrylic colors of various viscosities, allowing gravity to dictate a dance of cascading pigment onto the surface and within the threads of each white canvas. The effects are luminous, capturing movement in its most fleeting, opulent instant. She is not painting an object or a thing, but rather a moment.
Bette Ridgeway was born in Tupper Lake, a small village in the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York state, a few miles from the Canadian border. Inspired by the pristine and expansive beauty of this six million square mile natural habitat, she began drawing and painting at a young age.
Ridgeway went on to study visual arts with an emphasis in graphic design at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY. She was later hired as a professional commercial artist at Reuben H. Donnelley Advertising Corporation. With its on-the-job training, she received far more substantial instruction than any art school could provide.
In 1979, Paul Jenkins (1923-2012), the renowned Abstract Expressionist, encouraged Ridgeway to produce large pieces focused on color, space, and time rather than subject matter. Ridgeway took his guidance, honing her individual means of expression and in 1988 she had her first major solo show at Fota Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. Her large, colorful canvases drew an enormous crowd and sold out. That was the beginning of her long and successful art career.
Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1996, Ridgeway is represented by premier galleries throughout the US and has participated in more than 80 gallery and museum exhibitions worldwide, including a concurrent juried exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. Her artwork is held in numerous public and private collections.
Her most notable accolades include the Leonardo DaVinci International Prize (multiple years), the Caravaggio International Prize, the Michelangelo International Prize, and recognition as one of Art Tour International Magazine’s “Top 60 Contemporary Masters.” She received the Oxford University Alumni Prize at the “Art of the Mind” exhibition at Chianciano Art Museum in Tuscany. Her work has appeared in prominent publications such as Art Celebrity Magazine, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, Monk Magazine (UK), LandEscape Art Review, Special Edition London, and the inaugural London Art Biennale catalogue.
Bette Ridgeway has no recent or upcoming exhibitions, but check back soon for updates or changes!
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