Bets Cole American, b. 1951

Next solo exhibit: Aug-Sept, 2024

I am visually fascinated by the introduction of a red car in a driveway, or blackberries climbing a deteriorating barn. A cabin built in a grass field feels unlike a farm stand sitting in front of carefully planted rows of corn. A planing mill surrounded by hills of timber seems a world away from a highrise apartment overlooking a city park. Each is equally captivating.

Bets Cole, 2021

Bets Cole sells and shows her artwork nationwide. Working primarily in the plein air tradition, she paints outside in the landscape with immediacy and openness. She welcomes the challenge of exploring and painting unfamiliar places. Her choice of medium – whether acrylic, watercolor, gouache or charcoal – is dictated by the subject matter, colors, and quality of light specific to each location.

 

When she is not traveling, Bets works from her studio in her home on an eighty-acre farm in Oregon. Recently she has explored new subject matter through large-format portraits and postcard-sized vignettes of objects and people she has met throughout her travels.