Betsy’s earliest and fondest memories are about the fun she had with art projects  in elementary school.  She continued to expand upon her love of art and spent many hours in the art room at Albany High School, NY where she was influenced and encouraged by her high school art teacher, Joyce Keenan. 

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, she began teaching art at local elementary schools while pursuing a Masters Degree in Special Education.  Her desire to teach students with learning differences brought her to spend four years teaching art at a residential school for adolescents with various learning and social challenges.

Betsy was fortunate to spend nine years living in a small village in Great Britain. At that time she was raising her children and pursued her art by joining a local art association and competing in local art shows. Betsy also found a niche specializing in cartoon drawing for special events. Upon her return to the states, she relocated to Cape Cod where she began working for Barnstable Public School system.

Betsy joined the Falmouth Artists Guild in 1999 and took her first pastel class.  After trial and error, experimenting and referring to pastel and artist’s books she then sought out pastel workshops. She has taken many plein air and studio workshops, and finds them a source of inspiration; learning from both the instructors and fellow participants.

Betsy belongs to the Falmouth Artists Guild, Cape Cod Art Association, the Connecticut Pastel Society, the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod; and the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, where she is currently the Vice President. She has exhibited her work in local, regional and national art shows, where she has won numerous awards for her pastel paintings.  Betsy’s pastel paintings have been represented by the Sandpiper Gallery in Wellfleet since 2002. She exhibits routinely in juried and member shows and organizes a “traveling selection” of her pastel paintings that are displayed in local libraries and coffee houses. She is proud to have her pastel paintings in private collections in the states and in Great Britain.