Berta Painter
Previoulsy published in the Bolivar Free-Herald.
Flexibility is what artist Berta Painter believes is her major strength. “A lot of artists get stuck in certain areas,” she says, “but I’ve done abstracts, super photo-realism, Boris Vallejo-type comics. I’ve been doing a lot of fantasy art recently.”
Berta was born, and today resides, in Bolivar, Missouri. She grew up in Los Angeles, California during the ’70s. The L.A. art scene, she says, is “very competitive so there is pressure to be better. I was exposed to a great variety of styles. I saw a lot of bright colors and that shows up in my work.”
The time period also influenced her “in a negative way because a lot of artists around whom there was a great deal of hoopla didn’t show much in the way of technique and I think art should show skill.” The 45-year-old Berta took two years of art school, “then decided I would take seminars on my own because I wanted to get more into technique.”
Collectors and universities have commissioned Berta’s art and she has won several awards, including the DeAnza Art Festival Award, the Fontana Arts Festival Award, and the Riverside Arts Council Achievement Award. Berta has sold thousands of paintings throughout the country.
While “everybody is an influence,” Berta’s favorite artist is “Vincent Van Gogh because he had such a struggle within his mind and he was so deeply committed to painting that he starved his body to spend his money on paints and that caused some of his mental problems.”
Berta is fascinated by Native American history and says, “I used to do a lot of Indians but I don’t anymore because white people came over and killed them and now we’re representing them and profiting from them and I don’t think that’s right.”
“Some of my work reflects my spiritual beliefs,” Berta says. “I don’t belong to any denomination but I have a strong belief in God. There’s a life beyond this one, more free and colorful than churches tell you.”
Berta paints many scenes from nature, often not to make a particular statement but “just to make something pretty.” Her fear for the environment was given artistic form in a painting in which the earth is held in the grip of a vise: “I feel there is a lot of pressure on the earth now.”
Her reverence for nature is reflected in “Mother Earth in All Her Glory,” a painting showing a goddess who surveys creation while holding it in the palm her hand.
A group of goldfish apparently swimming in the air outside their bowl whimsically expresses “the way I see life. More people need to get out of the fish bowl!”
Having worked in watercolors, pastels, and acrylics, Berta prefers oils because of their durability. She notes wryly that, “some people think I work in oils because it’s easier. I say to them that ‘oils are more likely to last 500 years than watercolors are.’”
Anyone interested in contacting Berta Bly, may email her at bertaartist@yahoo.com.
Possibly related posts...
| More from Denise Noe
Stumble It!
