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Beth Courtright Detwiler
Contemporary Visionary Artist
"Art is my charter on the way to knowing and being known."
Beth Courtright Detwiler creating a masking tape/mixed media installation entitled "When the Perfect comes..."
Artist Biography
I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and spent my childhood moving about the midwestern United States with my family.
In the early 1980's, I enrolled in art school at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. After many stops and starts, I graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, areas of emphasis included: ceramics & sculpture, life drawing & painting and metalsmithing.
After my college years in Columbus, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Here, I found the rich culture of the Inner Harbor and urban ethnic enclaves to be inspirational - with colorful fish markets, historic sites and an eclectic art scene. I quickly set up my studio in South Baltimore working as an oil painter, gallery artist, illustrator, and a published cartoonist for an Arts publication out of Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1998, I moved cross country to the Verde Valley of Northern Arizona. I set up my studio in an old "1920's era" building called the Old Jerome High School in the copper-mining "ghost town" of Jerome, Arizona. The studio has high ceilings and big windows which offer a panoramic view of Sedona and the Mongollon Rim. It is a spectacular view, especially during the summer monsoon season. The space is expansive in so many ways and has allowed me to experiment with alternative mediums and processes.
My inspiration is found in the beauty of my natural surroundings. I incorporate images of hummingbirds, cornfields, trees, and rain clouds into my work. I have been experimenting with the newly emerging medium of "Masking Tape Art" since 2009, creating murals, abstract landscapes, still lifes and icons from tape which I hand-paint in bold primary and secondary colors. I sometimes go on to photograph these tape art pieces and rework them in digital painting formats to produce images that are both contemporary and nieve. I think that my art processes are intuitive, and best described in terms of art hybrids, such as "contemporary-visionary" or "contemporary-folk" art.
In the early 1980's, I enrolled in art school at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. After many stops and starts, I graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, areas of emphasis included: ceramics & sculpture, life drawing & painting and metalsmithing.
After my college years in Columbus, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Here, I found the rich culture of the Inner Harbor and urban ethnic enclaves to be inspirational - with colorful fish markets, historic sites and an eclectic art scene. I quickly set up my studio in South Baltimore working as an oil painter, gallery artist, illustrator, and a published cartoonist for an Arts publication out of Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1998, I moved cross country to the Verde Valley of Northern Arizona. I set up my studio in an old "1920's era" building called the Old Jerome High School in the copper-mining "ghost town" of Jerome, Arizona. The studio has high ceilings and big windows which offer a panoramic view of Sedona and the Mongollon Rim. It is a spectacular view, especially during the summer monsoon season. The space is expansive in so many ways and has allowed me to experiment with alternative mediums and processes.
My inspiration is found in the beauty of my natural surroundings. I incorporate images of hummingbirds, cornfields, trees, and rain clouds into my work. I have been experimenting with the newly emerging medium of "Masking Tape Art" since 2009, creating murals, abstract landscapes, still lifes and icons from tape which I hand-paint in bold primary and secondary colors. I sometimes go on to photograph these tape art pieces and rework them in digital painting formats to produce images that are both contemporary and nieve. I think that my art processes are intuitive, and best described in terms of art hybrids, such as "contemporary-visionary" or "contemporary-folk" art.