UPCOMING EXHIBITION: April 26, 2024-May 25, Group exhibition, "Six Pathways", Patti Harris, Marie Hassett, Joyce Hill, Beth Pedersen, Deborah Stewart and Ann Stievater, link
Beth Pedersen (American, 20th C.- ) is a printmaker and painter currently residing in Buffalo, New York and is a recent past-president of the Bufffalo Society of Artists (BSA) She grew up in lower Westchester County in close proximity to NYC with all the visual art any child could hope to see. Half of her summers were spent in the city and the other half on a dairy farm in New Jersey. She developed a strong connection with the earth, nature and the natural environment. Entering undergraduate school in New Paltz, NY as a realist, she was overtaken by the freedom of abstract expressionist painting which continued to develop as a powerful way of expression for her throughout graduate school at the University at Buffalo (U.B.).
In her decades-spanning practice, Beth Pedersen has explored natural and environmental issues of the day using many materials and mediums. These themes have been present since the early 1980s in oil paintings and various printmaking processes created both abstractly and representationally. New York City’s art world and the ripple effect at SUNY New Paltz College had a powerful influence on the once realist painter turned “ab-ex” painter having studied with Ilya Bolotowsky and George Ward law.
During the 1970's watercolor, pastel and pencil drawings were the media of choice while raising a family. Those years were spent examining the present landscape with memories of the Hudson River valley Just north of NYC and of the farmlands in central New Jersey. The conflict of those bucolic memories verses the environmental issues we face today gives purpose to this artist. Life experiences were enhanced during moves from a NYC burb to Oklahoma and then upstate New York in the Schenectady/Albany area. A final move to Western New York provided the opportunity to acquire an MFA at the University at Buffalo where abstract prints and paintings examining man's earthly relationships continued to expand.
Beth has primarily showcased regionally and internationally. In the 2000s, Beth continues to flip back and forth between representation and abstraction and is currently printing encaustic monotypes as well as three-dimensional encaustic sculptures on recycled materials in her Clarence studio. She continues to be a community arts advocate working on films preserving the voices of other visual artists and motoring high school students pursuing the field of visual arts.
She served as President of the Buffalo Society of Artists from 2010-11, served two terms as Director and is currently Chairperson for the Video Archive Project recording profiles of prominent WNY visual artists. She was a Charter member of the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society, served as Director and Treasurer of the AAO Art Gallery, Director for the Williamsville Art Society and was a former member of the Hallwalls Visual Arts Committee as well as other organizations. For several years, she taught art community seminars for the town of Clarence, NY as well as teaching private art lessons for children in the Willow Ridge community of Amherst, NY.
Artist Statement:
My work echoes the underlying theme of nature and our ever changing environment. I use my art to explore the environmental issues of the day. Each series deals with the landscape (land, air, water) or bodyscape (animal, insect, plant life), any of which have been subjected to society’s carelessness. Working abstractly and with the energy of the moment, I navigate among various media, making use of painting, lithographic ink based monotypes, encaustic, drawing and three dimensional pieces that are dually of the world and the studio.
Artist's page at Six Pathways: Beth Pedersen.
(Sources: Artist biographical information from sixpathways.com; Buffalo Rising online article, 2012, in conjunction with the BSA and help from Paul Rybarczyk at the BSA; Burchfield-Penney Art Center website.)