Bets Cole

Bets Cole has spent the majority of her artistic career traveling and painting throughout the US and Europe in the plein air tradition. In the open air she studies the ever-changing landscape, recording both its vastness and its details. She is known for her large-scale charcoal drawings and colorful watercolor, acrylic paintings. She holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon. She worked for many years as a graphic designer in NYC and Oregon and eventually created and taught a graphic design program at Lane Community College. In 2001, she participated in an artist-in-residence program at Crater Lake National Park in celebration of the park’s 100th anniversary. In 2010 she painted in an artist-in-residence program in Brittany, France awarded by Maryland Institute College of Art. She has showcased her work in the Governor’s Office in the Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon and has been commissioned by The Oregon Arts Commission to design and execute ceramic tile murals for four new building sites.She has painted in the following Plein Air Invitationals: “In the Footsteps of Thomas Moran” at Zion National Park, Oregon’s Pacific Northwest Plein Air Invitational in the Columbia Gorge, Cannon Beach Plein Air Festival, The Umpqua Valley Plein Air Paintout in Roseburg, Oregon, Paint Snow Hill and Paint Annapolis Plein Air Invitational in Maryland, Chincoteague Plein Air Invitational in Virginia, Los Gatos Plein Air Invitational in California and Art in the Open in Wexford, Ireland.