Featured Artist Betzi Stein

Artist Betzi Stein’s intuitive portraits capture the personality of her subjects, offering a playful aesthetic as well. More about this artist’s work can be seen by viewing her website.

 

 

I’ve been a keen observer of people and have had a passion for making art ever since I can remember. As an outsider growing up the late 1940s in Philadelphia, I learned early on to express myself visually rather than verbally. This began what would later come to define my signature portrait style—people, color, detail, intuitiveness, stylized realism and humor with a bit of an edge.

 

 

I earned a B.F.A. in Sculpture and Jewelry Design at California State University Long Beach, where my skills in portraiture were honed by sculpting life-sized clay portrait busts every week for a year!

 

 

After college, I worked as a jewelry designer until circumstances in my life necessitated a change of direction. I became a full-time massage therapist immersed in the healing arts, but it took me away from the visual arts for nearly twenty years.

 

 

One day, I read an article about an artist, Ann Kullberg, who “painted” portraits in colored pencil on her dining room table. It was an “ah ha” moment for me and as I had only a small space in which to work, I thought if she can do it, so can I! That was the catalyst that rekindled my desire to bring art back into my life.

 

 

I began doing my own colored pencil portraits, which, while very satisfying, were also extremely time-consuming. Feeling the need for more creative flexibility, and though I’d never actually learned to paint in school, with the help of YouTube, I taught myself to work in acrylics.

 

 

In addition to formal portraiture, many of my subjects are drawn from people I see on my wanderings when I’m out and about—people just living their lives, unaware of my presence. Working from snapshots I take myself, I isolate one or two figures against a color field or decorative background, reproducing as much as possible the image in my mind that I was initially drawn to.

 

 

People who attract my attention often present a striking or quirky presence and through my interpretation may be subjected to my sense of humor, mischief and good-natured sarcasm.

 

 

My commissioned portraits are somewhat more conventional in that a background setting of relevance to my subject may be included, although my sense of fun is always in evidence. A working relationship with my clients is essential and I strive to maintain a balance between pleasing them while still being true to my artistic aesthetic.

 

 

An ongoing series of more intuitive paintings are my “Hand Portraits” which evolved from doing massage, my hands being the central tool in my profession. My tactile sensitivity cultivated over many years has enabled me to “read” the energy of my clients and that is expressed in these paintings.

 

 

My work has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and I am honored to have won numerous awards. I paint in my home studio in the Palms section of Los Angeles.

 

Artist Betzi Stein invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

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