Bette Ridgeway · Winner Collectors Art Prize
Pushing the boundaries of light, color and design, Bette Ridgeway is best known for her large-scale, luminous poured canvases, which, in recent years have garnered international recognition.
The artist maintains a practice in Santa Fe, NM, where the high desert light fuels her creative spirit. Her career began in 1960 in the sweatshop of Reuben Donnelley Advertising as a young graphic artist and over many decades taken her to the outdoor marketplaces in Tananarive, Madagascar, the urban dynamism of Santiago, Chile and the modern youthful capital of Australia in New South Wales - Canberra. And… man y places in between.
Stimulated by the variety of the colors and customs on 5 continents, along with growing up in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, Ridgeway continues to perfect her unusual pouring technique.
In 1979 she was fortunate to meet internationally acclaimed artist, Paul Jenkins. This was a life-changing experience. Jenkins became a good friend and mentor, encouraging the artist to work large and focus on color, space and time. After 8 long years of painting, Jenkins finally said she was ready for a show. That was in 1988. A solo show at FOTA Gallery in Alexandria, Va was a sellout and a turning point. She quit her day job and began painting full time…a dream come true!
Now in her fifth decade of pouring paint, the artist is taking time to reflect. She is looking deeply into her creative impulses and sees clearly that her joy is color. She is in love with the movement in her work, sometimes kinetic and full of emotion, sometimes bold and masterful, sometimes languid and tentative.
Ridgeway’s journey has not been an easy one. But there are moments in the studio when everything is working so incredibly well - the music is playing, and the creative wheels are jamming. Time does not exist for her. The art unfolds under her tiny but strong hands. She is the channel. It is not hers. Like a child, it comes through her, but it is not hers. It goes out into the world – it has a life of its own.
Haiku with Red, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 132.08 x 162.56 cm
Prelude to a Dream I, acrylic with gold, silver & bronze on canvas, 2025, 172.72 x 132.08 cm
Haiku III, 2025, acrylic with bronze on canvas, 193.04 x 121.92 cm
Haiku with Blue, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 162.56 x 132.52 cm
Prelude to a Dream II, 2025, acrylic with gold, silver & bronze on canvas, 172.72 x 127 cm
