Inspired by the way nature unbinds something deep within us

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About

Bethanie is a contemporary landscape painter located in Denver, Colorado.

Inspired by the way nature unbinds something deep within us, Bethanie draws her subject matter from her own outdoor experiences—whether that be from walking through a neighborhood park or backpacking through a mountain range. Her process, on the other hand, is largely informed by abstraction. She began her art career as an abstract artist fascinated with the challenge of creating form from the formless—asking questions like "what is the color of innocence?" or "how can line depict ache or desperation?" This fascination with abstraction and mark-making followed Bethanie into her representational landscape work, begging her to consider the intangible feelings a person experiences in nature, such as awe and wonder, when making decisions on form and color.

Process

My work begins with outdoor adventure.

Besides applying paint to canvas, I feel most alive in places with a great expanse before me—places that beckon my heart to wonder and make me feel really small. Translating those outdoor experiences with paint, both the visual experience and the visceral experience, is my primary goal.

Sometimes I paint on site (plein-air), but mostly I paint from photographs I've taken. I usually sketch out ideas for compositions, distilling the visual information down to simpler shapes and values. Then, I use that sketch to inform my mark-making, prioritizing my love for abstraction and paint application with loose and intuitive brushwork and playful and inventive color choice.

I cannot paint without a plan. Even when I paint abstract work, I carefully plan out the composition and color palette. The same is true for my landscapes. I need a formula for the bones of a painting before I can let loose my spontaneous and intuitive core. Good tunes are also a must— with a little bit of space to cry and a little bit of space to dance.

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