BETTY GILROY

     From childhood in Wisconsin, Betty Gilroy has nurtured her creative side, combining her love of nature and her love of art.   Whether it is a garden in the city, a thirsty desert landscape or a sunset on the ocean, Gilroy cherishes how the beauty of nature is everywhere, in countless ways and various environments.   Her paintings reflect that passion of nature and her desire to express the subjects in their true essence.
 

    Gilroy has had some formal training in Commercial Art but life’s journey has been her greatest teacher.  Every decade brings a new chapter of artistic skill and opportunity.  As her life experiences vary, so do Betty’s artistic endeavors and choices.

     For the past 30 years art has been interwoven in Betty’s life, free-lancing and volunteering her artistic abilities from place to place and person to person.  Her first significant art pieces were created while still a teenager.  She designed and painted several psychedelic wall murals at the local youth center where she grew up and won several local art awards.  Those opportunities gave her the sense that she was really an artist and had something to offer with an artistic future to look forward to.

     From there what ever artistic opportunity arose, Betty would take, mounting her skill in various techniques and mediums.  During the 70’s and 80’s she primarily worked in watercolors and acrylic wall murals.  Often different art jobs would come, stretching her to learn new areas like sign painting, lettering, 3D art, pencil or pen and ink drawings.   In the 90’s and 2000’s Betty delved into acrylic painting on canvas and continued creating wall murals on a larger scale.  She also turned her interest to woodworking, hand crafting and artistically painting wood furnishings.  With this came a level of skill she used to dream of as a teenager.  She is appreciated and known for her detailed realistic impressions of the Anza Borrego Desert, her many sunset palms and her various tropical and floral paintings.

     Laying aside her interest in projects like large scale wall murals she is pursuing the detailed world of nature on canvas, acquiring her subjects through photography.   Often times she takes a great number of photos of one subject from various positions and angles to be sure to fully attain the character of what ever she is photographing and will eventually paint.  This thorough information allows her to paint her nature subjects in awesome and realistic detail.

      It has been in the last decade that Gilroy found an interest in exhibiting her art in shows and galleries.  Her paintings and murals have been displayed throughout Southern California, particularly San Diego County where she lives.  In 2007 at the San Diego County Fair Betty won ‘First Place’ and also ‘Best of Division’ for her hand crafted Alder floor cabinet painted artistically with a Caribbean Scene.  She won a third place award for her canvas painting ‘The Queen’, a 30”x40” representation of a towering blooming queen palm.   Also, her painting ‘The Desert Ranch’ is published in the book  Land of Sunlight, Contemporary Paintings of San Diego County, published by San Diego Flora. Her paintings are displayed privately in several states around the country and past and recent works can be viewed on her website at www.gilroyart.com.