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Elizabeth (Betty) O’Brien is a regionally known artist
who works primarily in watercolor, mixed watermedia, and monotypes.
Best known for her landscapes, which often include elements of our
man-made environment as well as more traditional pristine Adirondack
settings, she also enjoys producing the occasional still life, as the
subjects can be manipulated to achieve a more formal and symbolic
creation. Recently retired from teaching, O’Brien was the junior and
senior high school art teacher at the Fort Edward High School for over
thirty years. As arts-in-education coordinator she designed a number of
“Artist in Residence” programs and worked with area industries in
ascertaining grants for such programs. She has prepared classes in
the area for both young people and adults, including a number offered
through The Hyde Collection.
A charter member since 1973, O’Brien is the immediate
past president of the Guild of Adirondack Artists. She is also an active
member of a number of other regional arts organizations including the
Southern Vermont Arts Center, The Saratoga County Arts Council, the
Lower Adirondack Arts Council and the Upper Hudson Valley Watercolor
Society. A past president of the Watercolor Society, she was
recently the Watercolor Society’s co-chair for a juried aquamedia show,
”Great Works in Small Frames” hung at LARAC’s Lapham Gallery this past
summer and serves on the gallery committee. She has served as a
panel member for LARAC’s Individual Artist Grant program and as a juror
for several local art exhibits.
O’Brien has exhibited throughout the Northeast for over
thirty years in a number of solo and group exhibitions. She has as
well won awards in any number of regional competitions, including first
place in The Hyde Collection’s Adirondack Regional Show, Juror’s Award
in The Lake Placid Center for the Art s’ Adirondack Life Exhibition, and
the Stu-art Award at the Adirondack Park Centennial Watercolor Exhibit.
The artist’s most recent and most successful solo exhibit, “Suburban
Wood,” displayed at LARAC’s Lapham Gallery in the late spring of 2002,
generated the cover story in the Post Star’s “The Scene” (May 8, 2002).
Recently, O’Brien has opened a new studio and teaching
facility called The Watermedia Academy in the old Troy Shirt
Factory, 21 Cooper St., Glens Falls. Presently, she is completing
a series of watermedia monotypes and presenting workshops featuring the
medium. An ongoing watercolor class is available, and a “Basics
and Beyond” in watercolor workshop will be taught in August at Gore
Mountain through the Hudson River School. Betty says that she
enjoys teaching the basics of watermedia but loves to encourage students
to develop and nurture their own style and emotional response to a
subject. |
