Biography

Pushing the boundaries of light, color, and space, Bette Ridgeway is celebrated for her luminous poured canvases, which have earned her international critical acclaim.

Born in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, Ridgeway studied graphic design at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, and worked as a designer for Reuben H. Donnelley Advertising Corporation. She went on to attend the New York School of Interior Design and the Art Students League in New York City before continuing her artistic studies abroad—painting, exhibiting, teaching, and immersing herself in the cultures of Madagascar, Australia, and Chile.

Returning to the United States, she balanced her studio practice with prominent leadership roles in the arts, serving as Visual Arts Specialist for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and Executive Director/CEO of Very Special Arts, an educational affiliate of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Acclaimed Abstract Expressionist master Paul Jenkins mentored Ridgeway for several decades. Over the course of forty years, she has perfected her signature technique of “Layering Light” across monumental canvases and sculptural forms. Recognizing this lineage, Italian art critic Salvatore Russo recently titled an essay on her practice, “The True Heir of Paul Jenkins.”

The artist is represented by more than a dozen premier galleries across the United States, including LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico—recently recognized as one of the top ten galleries in the nation. Since the mid-1970s, Ridgeway has exhibited in over 80 museums, universities, and galleries worldwide. Notable presentations include 2025 solo exhibitions with Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York and Ventana Fine Art in Santa Fe, alongside the 2026 debut of her monumental work, Dancing With Time, at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Art in Spring, Texas. Selected career exhibitions include the Royal Scottish Academy; London Art Biennale; Swiss Art Expo at SBB Eventhall Zürich Main Station; Barcelona International Art Fair; Women’s Essence (58th Venice Biennale); the Embassy of Madagascar; Southwest Gallery; and Ocean Galleries. Her paintings are held in prominent permanent collections, including the Mayo Clinic, the Federal Reserve Bank, and The Boro Building in Tysons, Virginia.

Her recent international accolades include the 2026 International Prize “The Universal Genius” (a Leonardo da Vinci tribute presented by the Effetto Arte Foundation at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan), the 2025 Artist of the Year Award (Rome), and a trio of prestigious 2024 honors: the Premier Art Prize (Contemporary Art Station, Barcelona), the International Prize Velázquez & Goya (Barcelona), and Florence’s Sandro Botticelli International Prize. These follow her 2023 distinctions, including the Collectors Art Prize from Contemporary Art Curator Magazine and the Harmony for Humanity: Global Consciousness Art Prize.

Her monograph, Romancing Color, was published by SNAP Collective (Denmark) in 2024. Ridgeway has also authored several books on art and the creative process. Her work and features have appeared in numerous publications and literary reviews, including Art Folio, Contemporary Masters, Modern Renaissance, LandEscape Art Review, ArtifactNYC Journal, Contemporary Art Collectors Magazine, Sage Magazine (Yale School of the Environment), About Place Journal, Trend Magazine, and as the cover artist for Robert Giron's award-winning collection Songs for the Spirit / Canciones para el espíritu (Gival Press).

Artist Statement

“My paintings are a spontaneous occurrence, born of experience, but maturing reflexively in the process of creation. My technique is controlled improvisation. Gravity is my medium. Images are caught with intent. I am not painting a thing. I am painting a moment."

Working in both 2D and 3D suits my temperament, and the many facets of my creativity. Beginning with drawing and graphic design in advertising, then painting in oils, finding my way into acrylics, and along the way, realizing I was a sculptor as well. Then came cell cast acrylic (which looks and feels like glass), mysterious and translucent, another lens to look through. Joining paint and resin to aluminum and steel, plexiglass, designing and fabricating minimal towers of welded aluminum. Fusing color and layers of gloss. Reflective. Meditative.

Everything connects. Aluminum bends, torches heat, paint flows, plexiglass fuses into a new substance.

Movement translated to form.

The left side of my brain demands deep dives into online branding and marketing. Dabbling in code. Bringing new language to another aesthetic. Designing custom websites fuels the opposite side of the brain.

Office – studio. Studio – office. The Computer has made friends with the paint and pigment.

Complete balance. Harmony. Satisfaction. Rewards, very deep rewards.

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