Betty Rothaus, MFA, captures the unique qualities of her subjects revealing their presence and inner spirit and reminds us of our shared presence with them.
Betty Rothaus, an artist and art educator, has exhibited, lectured, and/or taught nationally and internationally on the east and west coasts of the U.S. and in Paris, France, Kobe Niki, Japan, Castello and Cadaques,Spain, and Byrne,Norway. Her work has appeared at the Museum of Natural History, Paris, France, in CA at San Diego’s Ruben H. Fleet Museum, the Triton Museum, the Haggin Museum, the Vacaville Museum, and Somarts Cultural Center in San Francisco, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester Polytech Institute in MA, and hangs in private collections in the United States and abroad.
Betty grew up in Jacksonville, Florida under the Fine Arts tutelage of her father Irvin Rothaus and her aunt Sara Wallach. She was awarded a BFA (U of Florida, Gainesville) in Drawing and Painting, an MFA (Miami University, Ohio) in Printmaking with additional studies in color and engraving at the Experimental Etching Studio in Boston, MA, and with William Stanley Hayter at the international Atelier 17 in Paris for seven years. In 1990 she began studying portraiture with Sherry Kwint-Cattouche and then, Bob Gerbracht and attended workshops by Michael Shane Neal, Hui Han, and Albert Handel. Her sources of lifelong learning are museum visits, books, video and online publications and workshops.
“The magic of creating has been part of my life for as long as I remember; what I am drawn to create continues to reveal what is closest to my soul. Drawing, painting, color and design are my ways to both record my observations and to explore deeper meaning. Creating and viewing art helps us to become more conscious to observe and witness who we are, here and now in the universe. I like to work in series because it invites me into the subject more deeply and widely – I have time to explore it and our relationship to it in this larger context.
In all my work, light illuminates form externally, and internally- portrays a spiritual Presence and Source; there is a quiet, calming, underlying quality of interconnectedness that invites the viewer to focus and find peace.
Portraiture and figurative subjects allow me to repeatedly return to my lifelong fascination with our human condition and spirit. During a sitting or from photographs, I am painting what I sense of my subject’s presence and energy while observing their unique physical qualities and attitude through placement, line, shape, value, temperature, color. contrasts and edges. Portraying both their individuality and universal humanity through these elements becomes a new challenge in each project.
In my land and seascapes: compositionally, sea interacts with land in an eternal flow of intertwining shapes and exchange of energy. In the landscapes, I use backlighting to provide a hopeful glimpse of a lighted energetic world that lies just beyond the material world …and within it. I love painting at dusk when shadows are long, rays of the sun travel horizontally in warm color, and we are brought into the moments when light dramatically transforms to darkness and new planetary sources light our way. The series “Havens” recognizes that nature provides sheltered beauty we share with other beings on earth and the fragile privilege we have in being here in life, together.
The still life paintings feature the warmth of familiar and unfamiliar objects. Objects may also be charged with relationships and meaning beyond the objects themselves – color and composition are metaphors for how we interact with others within this universe in which we find ourselves. The florals celebrate and shine a light on the ubiquitous presence of growth and beauty so available for immediate healing of the spirit.
The Cosmos, Meteorites and Crystals works were born the day I walked into a Mineral Museum for the first time. I saw geometric crystals in brilliant colors that seemed to defy the laws of gravity and meteorites sliced open and etched, revealing an illusion of three dimensional space that did not obey the laws of Renaissance Perspective. Molecules line up in lattices as they cool in the earth or in outer space so I drew lattices and then created structures on them with etching and engraving; gradually I interpreted the beautiful jewel- like internal light and color they gave off through viscosity color printing using transparent inks. The paintings and drawings in the collection are my direct observations from slices of meteorites I saw under an electron microscope.
These collections remind us of our place in the light, as human beings and as souls. The daily processes of creation and formation, transformation and beauty, ephemeral and eternal, mirror for us who we are; we become part of these processes and they become part of us- in our physical and in our spiritual lives. Inspired by awe and gratitude for the beauty, complexity and harmony of our universe and the miracle of life, it is my hope these expressions will remind others, of the gifts surrounding us.”(please read mission statement in the drop down menu for “about”).
In addition to her private work, her passion for teaching has inspired Betty Rothaus to direct the Art Program since 1990, at the Reutlinger Community in Danville, CA, a long term care community. She has empowered seniors to connect to their innately human creative process and discover their joy in living a creative life through artmaking. She currently lives in Walnut Creek, CA.