ABOUT THE ARTIST
Bettye Barclay has worked in a variety of media including clay, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media, silk painting and fused glass.
Her focus from 1983 to 1998 was clay. Her studio in the mountains of Southern California was a place of great contentment and inspiration when she spent the years from 1988 to 1998 working in that environment.
Her sagger fired pieces were sold at local art shows, and at galleries in Brentwood, Sherman Oaks, Carmel, Ojai and Cambria in California. Her participation in the American Craft Council show at West Springfield, MA starting in 1987 led to gallery exhibitions at Halls in Kansas City, MO, Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, NJ, Artisans Three, Spring House, PA, and Hanson Galleries, Houston, TX.
In addition to the shows and exhibits her lovely sagger fired pots sold at galleries in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York, and Wisconsin.
After closing her clay studio in 1998 and moving back to Santa Monica she spent time painting. Bettye’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows at many local venues including Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine, Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery in Santa Monica, L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex and others. Her paintings are in collections in California, Hawaii, Texas, and Colorado.
Bettye is a member of Women Painters West.
Much time from 1998 to 2007 was spent on RV trips with her husband after his retirement and until his death in 2007.
In 2008 she again started working with clay, this time at Loyola Marymount University and at a studio in Santa Monica. This offered an opportunity to do more with raku, a process she had enjoyed previously.
Her Seasons of the Heart series included raku torsos and wall platters that were exhibited on the art wall at UUCCSM in Santa Monica. She has been invited to do exhibits at that location on several occasions since. These have included painting, mixed media, and one titled Translations that included interpretations in fused glass of some of her favorite themes, previously done in raku, of stylized figures, birds, and Seasons of the Heart.
Bettye’s almost thirty years working as a psychotherapist and many years exploring consciousness and spirituality influenced her life and are the matrix from which her art appears.