Betsy Ogles, Artist Rochester, NY USA
Painting has been a lifelong passion of mine. I have studied and taken lessons for over 30 years.
I trained and worked as a decorative artist for 25 years. Decorative art can be learned by anyone who has the desire to learn and is willing to put in time for practice. This art form uses patterns of line drawings that are transferred to the surface being painted, so drawing skills are not necessary. It has structured concepts in stroke work, creating form and dimension through the use of values (light and dark) that the artist can learn. What a blessing to learn such concepts as a stable foundation to my artistic journey. I joined the Society of Decorative Painters in 1988 and remain a member.
After years as a decorative artist, I am making a transition to fine art.
Development as an artist is a never-ending journey that has provided me a lifetime of fun, challenges, new friends, and many wonderful teachers. I will be forever grateful to my very first decorative painting teacher, Naomi Paget. Naomi taught me stroke work and basic concepts that I will never forget. I have studied and taken many online classes with www.ArtApprenticeOnLine.com. Through this on line art school, I took many classes by Neadeen Masters, Linda Wise, and Sue Pruitt. I traveled to Missouri on 3 occasions to take week-long seminars from Linda Wise. Linda developed a system of painting in multiple layers of sheer acrylic paint in colored umbers to create a full value scale painting, establishing all the light and dark of the painting before adding colors. Neadeen Masters has done multiple online classes that I enjoyed and learned from immensely - Painting realistic fur, beaches, sand dunes, sea scapes, sea turtles, tropical birds, jungle leaves, and much more.
Since 2017, I have been studying and taking online lessons from David Jansen. I have taken his classes in landscapes, an extended, year-long class in florals this is nearing its completion; Introduction to Westerns; Paint It Simply; and just started a year long class in color theory. From David I am learning to loosen up, paint more impressionistically, create on my own, and spread my wings.
After retiring from my full time job in November, 2018, I am now ready to concentrate full time on my painting career. My work is a combination of all the techniques I have learned from all my wonderful teachers. It is my sincere pleasure to share my art with you, and hope that it brings you as much joy to own as it did for me to paint it.