Betsy VanOot, Painter

First Name: 
Betsy
Last Name: 
VanOot
Media: 
Painting, Printmaking, and Drawing
Studio Location: 
Studio 6, 1st Floor
Artist URL: 

Buildlings have such a presence and I think we don’t often stop to really look at our built landscape.  A structure will capture my imagination almost as if it is a person.  In the same way that the planes of a face converge to create beauty, the patina, or geometry of a building sings out to me, and the relationship of mass to void becomes part of the building’s personality begging for careful scrutiny.  Often paintings about structures are about space, but I’m more interested in mood, and I find that mood especially evocative in industrial spaces, in places of labor.  I particularly like to think about the worlds that these buildings are hiding, the secrets in the dark voids, behind the shuttered windows and open doors.  Light is an intrinsic part of these mysteries, as the same sunlight that illuminates brilliant planes casts the darkest and most impenetrable shadows.