Beth Bale

Thank God for high school art teachers.  I had a great one.  Under her tutelage, I worked in a myriad of artistic media and loved most of them.  I have no memory of painting in watercolor as a child nor a teen, but I discovered it during my college days at Georgetown College in KY.  I have been mostly self-taught in painting watercolor, beginning with an independent study in college.  For the past 20 years I have painted largely in watercolor, with the occasional foray back to the acrylics of my college days.  Chatham County, NC, is my home.  I hold leadership positions in several state and local arts organizations, teach watercolor painting, and show my work in state-wide exhibits, at ARTworks Vass in Vass, NC, and Stray’s Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, Milton Gallery of Art and The Mann Center in Sanford, NC.  I earned my signature status in the Watercolor Society of NC in 2017.å

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I LOVE watercolor painting.  I love the way the pigment flows on the white paper when I paint in a wet technique and how the edges blend and mingle, soften or harden depending on my use of it.  I am passionate about the transparency of watercolor and the way the light bounces off the white of the paper and zings through the transparent washes of pigment when done properly.  The play of it calls me.  The colors inspire me.

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I have been passionate about nature and animals all my life.  From my first “kitty” at age 5 when I told my parents I would give all the presents under the tree for a kitty, to my cats, dogs, chickens and horses currently in my life and the beautiful ones at the NC Zoo, I find inspiration in all of these.  It took me several years after starting to paint in watercolor to follow the adage I had heard so many times, “Paint what you know.”  Now I do just that.  All my animals, flowers, love of the landscape around me and that of my youth, appear in my work.  I see beauty all around me.  Painting changes the way one sees the world.