Rudari by Betty Ross, Acrylic on Canvas
Artist Biography
A prolific artist, Elizabeth (Betty) Ross mastered several media—watercolor, acrylic, oil, pencil, ink, wood, and fabric. With these, she produced landscapes, portraits, still lifes, collage, and a range of non-representational work over a 50-year career.
Born in Romania to American expat parents, Ross left as a child but seemed always touched by her origin country, especially the Gypsy life there that left her with a sense of roaming and of reaching for the exotic and ephemeral, especially in Gypsy dress, which she found penurious but provocative.
Applying vivid colors in bold gestural movements, Ross created arresting pieces that spoke of the moment. Her modus with landscapes, however, was first to record a scene or subject with a drawing or watercolor, later reconstructing and enlarging the captured image in her studio with acrylic on canvas or paper. This two-stage effort worked especially well for landscape paintings of Ireland and America’s Zion Park, arguably her most successful and engaging work.
The Irish countryside engaged her eye during her travels there: green fields bordered by hedgerows and stone walls, sheep and cattle grazing everywhere. She felt it was a serene scene but noted the area was “poor, bare bones.” And she was aware, traveling in the late twentieth century, of the country’s violent political struggles, the “Troubles.” She described the scene as “peaceful but at war with itself.” In the resulting painting, we see only the peaceful.
Ross earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Radcliffe and a Master’s Degree in Theatre at the University of California Berkeley. In 1975, she and her husband, Murray, moved to Colorado Springs and founded TheatreWorks at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Betty was chief costume designer for the troupe.
Ross exhibited in numerous Colorado shows and in Taos, New Mexico, New York, and Chicago. A National Endowment for the Arts grant in the 1990’s enabled her to travel to her Romanian birthplace, a journey that renewed her family’s early association with Gypsy culture. She cited the artists de Kooning, Matisse and Motherwell as major influences on her own work.
Her first husband, Robin Magowan, was heir to the Safeway grocery chain. They had two sons, James and Felix. A third son, Orion, was a child of her marriage to Murray Ross.
In 2017, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs mounted a major show of Ross’s work, which included an illustrated catalog of her work and career: Betty Ross: Democratic Vistas. Joanna Roche, Professor of Art History at the University of California, provided an essay critiquing Ross’s work.
