Bets Cole - Biography

As an exhibiting artist for over 20 years, Bets Cole has achieved success in selling and showing her artwork nationwide. Her paintings are energetic, spontaneous, colorful and for the most part executed in the plein air tradition. Bets paints with an immediacy and openness that draws the viewer into her personal experience and response to the landscape.
   
The paper, the media and the process of painting and drawing play as much of a role in Bets’ art as the subject itself. She uses paint (acrylic, gouache and watercolor), pastel, and pencil. Each has its own personality and quality of mark, allowing choices and combinations that often challenge and surprise her.

Bets’ pieces evolve slowly, and her success lies in the patience and flexibility involved in her creation process. She continually re-works her surfaces, building layer upon layer, which in turn allows the piece to gain depth, a sense of history, and a voice of its own.

Bets Cole’s style has developed over the years in response to a wide range of influences.  These include Pacific Northwest painters C.S.Price, Nelson Sandgren and David McCosh, along with the Canadian Group of Seven and the California-based Society of Six.

Bets graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. with a B.S. in Design and Environmental Analysis, with a minor in Physics. After working for several years in New York Fifth Avenue firms, Bets was recruited to develop and coordinate a Graphic Design Program at Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon. She returned to school to obtain her B.F.A. and Masters of Fine Art in Painting and Drawing from the University of Oregon while teaching at both the University and at L.C.C. Prior to completing her M.F.A., Bets taught for two terms at the University of Hawaii and Honolulu Community College on a faculty exchange. She has lectured at the Chicago Art Institute, Portland State University, and Portland Community College.

In addition to receiving numerous awards, Bets Cole’s work has been included in many public and private collections including Oregon State University, University of Oregon, M & T Bank & Investment Group, Baltimore, Maryland, Marathon Coach and The Adell McMillan Collection, Eugene, Oregon. A recently published book La Petite Eclaircie, A Journal of Paintings by Bets Cole, ISBN 978-0-615-45104-6, documents over 40 paintings completed on site in France in 2010. Several of her pieces can also be seen in This Bountiful Place, ISBN-13: 978-0-87595-303-8.

In 2001, Bets was selected to participate in an artist-in-residence program at Crater Lake National Park in celebration of the park’s 100th anniversary and her work consequently was exhibited at The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon. In 2010 she travelled to Brittany, France where she painted for five weeks in the Isabel Klots Artist Residency Program awarded by Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. Bets has been commissioned by The Oregon Arts Commission percent for the Arts Program to design and execute ceramic tile murals for new building sites on four different occasions.

Bets Cole currently paints full-time in the plein air tradition, traveling to locations throughout the United States. Her work has recently been showcased at the Governor’s Office in the Capitol Building, Salem, Oregon.

Artist's Statement

I am an artist because through making art I have found a way to learn, speak, question and record my journey. I draw and paint the time, not just the moment in time. My essential concern and constant struggle is to make visible my strength, energy and passion through the use of form, color and gesture in my work.

Often my images arise from nature or from the subjects that nature provides. I have consciously chosen to live in Oregon, in the country, for it is Oregon's landscape, atmosphere and color that give me hope, inspire me and bring me calm.

The paper, the medium and the process of painting and drawing are as important to me as the subject itself. I use paint (acrylic, gouache and watercolor), pastel and pencil. Each has its own personality and quality of mark, allowing choices and combinations that often challenge and surprise me.

My pieces evolve slowly and I have learned that to succeed, I must be patient and flexible. I continually re-work my surfaces, layer upon layer, which in turn allows the piece to gain depth, a sense of history and a voice of its own.

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