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Elizabeth - Betty Jean Billups Art Collections

Shop for artwork from Elizabeth - Betty Jean Billups based on themed collections. Each image may be purchased as a canvas print, framed print, metal print, and more! Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Artwork by Elizabeth - Betty Jean Billups

Each image may be purchased as a canvas print, framed print, metal print, and more! Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

About Elizabeth - Betty Jean Billups

Elizabeth - Betty Jean Billups NOTE: If you are interested in any of my images as a print thru FAA...you need to contact me directly for prices...and so I can send a digital file to FAA in order to make the print. I DO NOT GIVE MY DIGITAL FILES TO ANYONE, until THERE IS AN ORDER! THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING, and contacting me!

"Capturing the inner feeling, a moment so quickly passing, a moment that is beyond words, almost beyond thought. the nuances that dance between a mountain and the sky that embraces her, creating a symphony that the eyes perceive, but only the soul can remember.

This celebration of light upon the physical and ethereal worlds, that creates a love affair, not only between these two worlds, but also for the viewer. It is this special moment in time that excites me, that drives me to even risk failure, if I but have the chance to capture only a fraction of what I see, of what I feel, of what I know, from this wonderful experience we call Life!" Betty Jean Billups

The following was written by Tom Battles, relating to a museum exhibition of Billups work in 2001:
The power and sweep of this unique style of Betty Jean Billups is comparable with the leading painters of our century and before.

The strength of her painting strokes combine masterfully with her extraordinary command of the artist's color palette. Bold and yet thoughtful use of composition yields a freshness and depth to these works that is seldom seen in many of today's works of art.

A dynamic and electrically charged must see exhibit combining a dazzling explosion of artistic energy and sparkling creativity. Tom Battles, referring to Clymer and Hockaday Museum Exhibitions

MAJOR ART EVENTS
In the summer of 1977, Elizabeth Jean Billups (AKA Betty) had her first one artist museum show at the Montana Historical Society in Helena. This exhibit was the direct results of doing research for a U.S. Army commission that she received, to create a painting of Sacajawea. And this commission came about because the Army had seen a painting Billups had in the U.S. Air Force Art Collection.
The painting was called "The Nightingale", & depicted the C-9, a medical plane.

The exhibit at the museum was titled "Inner Feelings" and was the sole reason Betty returned to a fine art career, with the heaviest amount of work being created "en plein air". Plein air painting is created on location, with all the elements: sun, wind, tides, and time, affecting that which
is being depicted in a painting...thus forcing the artist to work quickly and observantly...in order to capture the essence of a scene, before, and even while, it changes!

The trip into Idaho and Montana at that time, also brought her back years later, to live on a 200 + acre ranch, and eventually move into the mountains, to a tutor style cabin on 10 acres in the wilderness. Being surrounded by nature at every view, doing plein air paintings became almost as easy as breathing!

Since 1985 Billups has participated in the Plein Air Painters of America (PAPA) week of creating plein air creations on Catalina Island,
and then exhibiting these paintings at the Casino Ballroom. She was also their only ad chairman, from 1986 thru 1996, placing national ads in up to 5 magazines per month, not only promoting but also helping create the national movement known as Plein AIr Painting!

1996 saw Billups as one of a dozen artists invited to work on the world renown Murals in Toppenish Washington. She was personally commissioned to create 17 windows depicting a turn of the century bordello, viewed in a second story historic brick building

She has been one of twelve artists, that has been chosen to be one of the "Quick Draw " who create finished paintings, in a given 40 minutes,
that are auctioned, and benefit the C.M.Russell Museum. One of the four years that she received this honor, her creation of a Louis and Clark buck skinner went for $1600.

INSTRUCTORS OF INFLUENCE

Joseph Morgan Henninger
One of her most beloved instructors from the prestigious Los Angeles Art Center College of Design, was Joseph Morgan Henninger. He and his beloved wife, Danica, became Betty's life time art and personal supporters and friends

Reynold Brown
Another instructor from LAACCD, was a very dear and caring artist, Reynold Brown, who did many of the old Movie Posters of renown,
like Ben Hur. Reynold greatly influenced Billups with his passion and concern for his students...and gave them the "burn" to go beyond
what they believed they possibly could!

Dan Mc Caw
And ten years after her studies at the Art Center, she finally met Dan Mc Caw, whose work she had admired since the mid 70s.
The years that she studied with Dan at his studio greatly enhanced her style, which had always been rather loose. For years, every gallery she was in, encouraged her to "tighten up" so they could sell her work. She couldn't, or wouldn't, being true to what was in her heart...that which is observed in her work today, both in the studio and with her plein air paintings.

EDUCATION
1982-84 PRIVATE STUDY WITH DAN MC CAW
1972 (BA) THE LOS ANGELES ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN, Illustration
1969 (AA) EL CAMINO JUNIOR COLLEGE Torrance, California

AWARDS
Billups, the winner of Grand Purchase Awards and blue ribbons in national and international shows, has been featured in many art magazines
throughout her career, including Southwest Art, U.S. Art, Art talk, Sun Storm Publications, Art West, InformArt, to name a few.


PUBLICATIONS

2005 10 Experiments with Impressionism en Plein Air Painting by B.J. Billups (96 pg. publication)
2003M/A Spokane & coeur d'Alene Living
2002 Spring InformArt Landscape Painting and It's Emotional Connection
2002 Sept./Oct. Wildlife Art Collector's Corner
2000 CLYMER MUSEUM 200 FOR 2000 Publication with over 24 paintings
2000 Bonner County Millennium Cover
2000 Jan Smoke Signals
1997 J/J/A Sun Storm Fine Art Publications
1996 Nov. Southwest Art
1992 Tapestry Cover art
1990 Summer Festival at Sandpoint
1986 M/J Midwest Art
1985 May American Artist
1982 August Southwest Art
1980s Contemporary Western Artists by Samuels

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & AWARDS
2004 her still life ORANGES AND PEONIES was included in the publication: "How did you paint that? 100 ways to paint Flowers & Gardens"
2004 her plein air painting RIVER REFLECTIONS was included in the publication:
"How did you paint that? 100 ways to paint Seascapes, Rivers & Lakes"
May 2004 her painting "I Am the Sunlight" received a 3rd Place Award in an International Competition,
Aug 2005 Author and artist for 96 page book 10 Projects En Plein Air in Impressionism, in Oils

SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
Clymer Museum: 200 for 2000
The year 2002 also found her work in a museum publication, coinciding with her one artist exhibition: Clymer Museum: 200 for 2000, a 24 page, full color catalogue of some of her plein air paintings, that were created in the year 2000.

Hockaday Museum of Art
Late spring 2002, she was given a one artist exhibition at the Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell MT, for her plein air paintings created while she had an Artist in Residency at Glacier National Park .

CLIENTS
In addition to the Marriott Hotels, some of her clients include Bank of America, Fluor Corporation, Max Factor, Knotts Berry Farm, Genstar Mortgage and St. John's Hospital of Santa Monica, California.

COLLECTIONS
Her work hangs in collections throughout the U.S., Canada, Israel, Africa, and Japan. Some of these collections also are the home of Picassos, Henry Sharps, and other leading contemporary artists of the U.S. Some of the public collections include: The Royal Palms Hotel of Phoenix AZ (who own 4 of her plein air paintings); the United States Air Force (3 original oils and water colors); Alamita Corporation of Tucson AZ (Native American painting), to name a few.
Of the private collections, most enjoy many of her plein air paintings, with scatterings of her studio works.

Some of these collections also are the home of Picassos, Henry Sharps, and other leading contemporary artists of the U.S.


COMMISSIONS
2007 6x16 foot Mural for Mount San Antonio College of Southern California (plein air painting of Mount San Antonio)
96-2003 Mural -In-A- Day, Toppenish WA
96-2002 C.M. Russell Auction Quick Draw Artist
1998-99 Bordello Murals Toppenish WA
1996 10x8 foot Mural for Plastic Model Engineering, Post Falls ID

JURYING
In the mid 90s she helped jury the annual prestigious California Art Clubs' Exhibit, with her friend, Neil Boyle and her beloved instructor, Joseph Henninger. The difficulty was watching, as some categories with only seven entries had six awards handed out, and then one category
with over 200 entries, having the same six awards...so many wonderful images,
not being able to acknowledge them in the process.
Prior to that, she had juried many California exhibitions, giving awards to
abstracts and sculptures. She has also been invited to jury
water color organizations, since she juries based on principles,
and not her person style or media.

NATIONAL AFFILIATIONS
1972-1976 SI LA SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS OF LOS ANGELES
1972-73 VICE PRESIDENT OF SILA
1985 to Present PLEIN AIR PAINTERS OF AMERICA
1985-96 PAPA's sole Ad Chairman
1979 to 1983 WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE AMERICAN WEST
1996 to 2001 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF WOMEN ARTISTS
1996 THE CALIFORNIA ART CLUB

GALLERIES (Past and Present)
Schaar Gallery Laguna Beach CA
El Presidio Gallery Riodoso NM, Tucson AZ
Sacred Dancing Gallery Bigfork MT, Aspen CO
Gallery at Schwitzer Sandpoint ID
Galleria DeFelice The Davenport Hotel, Spokane WA
South Street Fine Arts Easton MD

EXHIBITIONS
Her colorful creations have been in prestigious galleries
over the past 30+ years:
Throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
Also in Scottsdale and Sedona AZ; Santa Fe, New Mexico;
Denver, Colorado; Richmond, VA; and Lexington, KY.
Select One Artist Exhibits
2003 Main Stoppe Gallery, Paintings from SW Ireland
Eclectic Collection, POAC Art Walk, Sandpoint ID
1986-10 POAC Art Walk, Sandpoint ID
Select Group Exhibits
Sept. 2005 Old Lyme CT Instructors Exhibit
2005-86 Plein Air Painters of America, Avalon Catalina Island, CA
Sedona Art Center, Sedona AZ;
Canyon Side Gallery, Wickenburg AZ
2002 Schaar Gallery, Laguna Beach CA
Bennington Art Center, Bennington VT
2000 Triage Gallery, Durango CO
Bennington Art Center, Bennington VT
1996 O'Brian's Emporium, Scottsdale AZ
B&R Galleries, Canyon Country CA
1979-82 Driscol Gallery Denver, CO; Cody Art Center, Cody WY;
Sanders Gallery, Tucson AZ; Wild Wings Gallery, CA;
Saddleback Gallery, Tustin CA

Museum Exhibitions
2002 Kalispel Museum of Art (One Artist)
2001 Clymer Museum, Ellensburg WA (One Artist)
1998 Clymer Museum, Ellensburg WA (AAWA)
1988 Gallery at the Vintage Wheel Museum, Sandpoint ID (One Artist)
1997 Desert Caballeros Museum, Wickenburg AZ (AAWA)
1977 Montana Historical Society, Helena MT (One Artist)

TEACHING
PLEIN AIR PAINTING WORKSHOPS
Betty teaches between 2 and 4 workshops per year, from coast to coast.
Select Workshops
2005 Old Lyme Art Association, CT
2004 Easton MD, Mathews VA
2003 Independent workshops in Butte MT and Kauai Hawaiian Islands
1998-2000 Plein Air Painters of America Workshops (PAPA)
Steamboat Springs CO, Bennington VT, Gandby CO.

Past locations:
Ol' Lym CT
Easton MD
Bar Harbor MA
Kauai HI
Sutters Creek CA
Wickenberg AZ
Steamboat Springs CO
Ashville NC
Coeur d Alene ID
Spokane WA