A painting captures a moment, a thing, a place, or a season, which can then be revisited and enjoyed once again. Painting each of these moments is joy and a challenge.

Mimi Betz is a local artist who rediscovered paint several years ago through study at the Yellow Barn Studio. She first developed an interest in painting while attending high school in Paris, France. Upon returning to the Washington, DC area, she began a thirty-nine year career with the federal government. In 2000, as she was preparing to retire from the U.S. Department of Transportation, her family gave her classes at the Yellow Barn Studio as gift so that she might revive the painting talents of her youth.

Since then Mimi has continued to take classes at the Yellow Barn and enjoys studying with its founder Walt Bartman, also with Walt’s son, Walt Bartman III, and with Glen Kessler. She has studied with plein air artists Bethanne Kinsella Cople, Sara Linda Poly and Gavin Brooks through the South Street Art Gallery in Easton, MD. Most recently she has taken a month long Plein Air Landscape Class through Montgomery College with Ed Alhstrom.

Her work includes local scenes, flowers, and still lifes. She had a solo exhibit of her paintings at the Yellow Barn Gallery in January 2006, as well as a shared show with another friend in April 2007. Several of her paintings were on display at Brookside Gardens in September and October of 2007. Her work was included in the 2006 Strathmore Hall Members Show in April 2006 and the “paint to cure” exhibit at the Yellow Barn Gallery during the winter of 2005. Mimi usually displays work at the yearly Glen Echo Park Labor Day Art Show, the Women’s Club of Chevy Chase Art Show (most years held in March), and Montgomery County Plein Air Artists Shows.

Mimi loves to paint en plein air. She may often be found painting at the edge of a field of sunflowers, or along the C&O canal, or painting the Potomac River from the GW Parkway. She often takes her painting paraphernalia on family vacations and spends time painting in such places as La Jolla, California; Lake Wentworth, New Hampshire; Boynton Beach, Florida; or Sedona and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Affiliations:
Yellow Barn Studio, Glen Echo, MD
Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association
Montgomery County Plein Air Artists
Strathmore Hall – Artist Member

Click on any image to view an enlargement and a slide show of all the paintings