21Dec/090
Betsey Rice in SO Rhode Island Magazine
All artists take inspirations from their surroundings and Betsey Rice is no exception. Having grown up in coastal areas she spent much of her life on the beach, exploring tidal pools, marshes and the inherent creatures. “Sealife really speaks to me” she said, “it’s fascinating.” For the past dozen years Rice has been creating oversized versions of the variety of coastal life that mother nature has to offer. “It’s so easy to step on shells on the beach and overlook their beautiful details” she said, “I magnify those details and try to faithfully recreate the natural colors.” Living in Quonochontaug has given Rice a plethora of intriguing specimens to study.
Betsey Rice grew up drawing and painting. Knowing she wanted to stay in an artistic field, she attended Green Mountain College in Vermont to study advertising design. It was on a break after college, while visiting an aunt and uncle in Georgia, that she discovered her true passion. “I went south to spend a few months with relatives after graduating” she said, “My aunt and uncle were professional potters. I had never been exposed to that medium but I quickly fell in love.” She learned to create beautiful and functional plates, cups and bowls and returned to SO RI ready to be a potter.
While raising her family Rice started with home shows, taking orders for her ceramic housewares. She said to herself “I’ll try this or I’ll have to get a job.” She quickly became swamped with orders and eventually made some items for mail order catalogs. Those orders were soon keeping her too busy to explore her more artistic instincts. Rice decided to cut back production on the houseware line to special orders so that she could expand her vision. Sealife won out. Today those oversized versions of the creatures we so often take for granted grace galleries and her website www.betseyrice.com. The beautiful ceramic and porcelin creatures command space on walls, tables and outside entryways. Rice also loves to create one of a kind pieces on commission, a dancing wall of stingrays among her latest. Visit her studio in “Quonnie” and collaborate on something special today.
You can contact Betsey Rice by email at: betsey@betseyrice.com
21Dec/090
Kendra Bidwell Ferreira in SO Rhode Island Magazine
At the tender age of 5, Kendra Bidwell Ferreira announced to her mother her intention to be an art teacher when she grew up. True to her word, Ferreira graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts and a minor in printmaking. Forgoing teaching at first, she concentrated on graphic design and worked for newspapers and printing companies. In 1996 she made the leap to pursue her art work full time and enjoy raising her three sons. Although Ferreira works in watercolor, pastels and oils, her favorite medium is colored pencil.
The precise points of the pencils allow Ferreira to render astonishing detail in her work while other techniques and her amazing ability to create light give the finished drawings a painted feel. She starts many of her pieces outdoors, finishing in the studio by way of a photograph. Ferreira, a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and President of the North East chapter, explains that because the pencil process is so slow the light changes too rapidly, even while working on still life in the studio. Drawn to the natural beauty in Rhode Island she is fond of the organic subjects of beach, shells and rocks. In the studio fruit and food come deliciously alive on the textured papers or Gesso board that she favors. Just viewing her sold out candy apple series (see her website) conjures up anticipation of sticky hands and faces. Along with landscapes and scenics, Ferreira is concentrating on smaller slices of scenes such as her current project of the rock, shell and seaweed tangles found on the local beaches. One such piece, Flotsam & Jetsam, was accepted for a juried show at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York City this month.
Ferreira is a member and exhibiting artist of the Spring Bull Gallery in Newport and also takes on commissions. There are only about 80 artists in the North East who work in colored pencil making it one of the rarer mediums. Now teaching adult and children's classes at her studio, Beach Studios, in Middletown as well as through community programs, Ferriera has fulfilled the dream of that 5 year old little girl.
For more information on classes or to view more of her work, visit www.kjfdesign.com or call Ferriera at 401-682-1915
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