Artist Statement
Bette Ridgeway is best known for her large-scale, luminous poured canvases that push the boundaries of light, color and design. Her youth spent in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and her extensive global travel have informed her colorful palette. For the past two decades, the high desert light of Santa Fe, NM has fueled Ridgeway’s art practice.
Her three decades of mentorship by the acclaimed Abstract Expressionist Paul Jenkins set her on her lifetime journey of non-objective painting on large canvas. She explores the interrelation and change of color in various conditions and on a variety of surfaces. Her artistic foundations in line drawing, watercolor, graphic design, and oils gave way to acrylics, which she found to be more versatile for her layering technique. Ridgeway has spent the last 30 years developing her signature technique, called “layering light,” in which she uses many layers of thin, transparent acrylics on linen and canvas to produce a fluidity and viscosity similar to traditional watercolor. Delving further, Ridgeway expanded her work into 3D, joining paint and resin to aluminum and steel with sculptures of minimal towers.
Ridgeway depicts movement in her work, sometimes kinetic and full of emotion, sometimes bold and masterful, sometimes languid and tentative. She sees herself as the channel, the work comes through her but it is not hers. It goes out into the world – it has a life of its own.
Artist Bio
Bette Ridgeway has exhibited with 80+ museums, universities and galleries, including: Palais Royale; Embassy of Madagascar; London Art Biennale; Swiss Art Expo; and Ventana Fine Art and is represented by 10 galleries.
Prestigious awards include Michelangelo International Prize, Leonardo DaVinci Prize and Oxford University Alumni Prize/Chianciano Art Museum. Mayo Clinic and Federal Reserve Bank are among Ridgeway’s permanent public placements, in addition to private collections and commissions. Many books and publications have featured her work, among them: 100 Famous Contemporary Artists, Magazine 43, Art Reveal, LandEscape and Art Magazenium. Ridgeway has penned several books about her art and process.
