At less than two years of age I began to draw…in color.
Perhaps due to the bold colors I observed while living in Mexico City as a child, I love to create vibrant pictures. I have been told by some who have viewed my paintings that they would like to step into them and live there.
This impulse to create something pleasing or intriguing that captures one’s eye coupled with an increasing fascination with color has grown in me. To tell a story, to create a mood, or to evoke…to communicate with kindred spirits…this fuels my creative process.
Education
BFA (Painting), George Washington University
M.A. (Art History), GWU
Additional Studies at Princeton Arts Council, Corcoran School of Art, Yellow Barn (Glen Echo, MD), Cleveland Institue of Art
I spent a summer in Brittany, France, after graduating from college and there my keen interest in plein air painting developed. Wherever I have lived, I have always found an art teacher from whom I have gleaned and extracted “golden nuggets” of wisdom and I have culled these together to form a unique and eclectic form of expressionism which continues to evolve.
Reach
Bess’ paintings have been exhibited internationally in venues such as, the US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan; and the home of the US consul General in Paris, France and Mexico City. Her works are part of numerous public and private collections including University Hospital, Rainbow Babies Hospital, Cleveland; Cleveland Art Association; and many more.
Her paintings have received numerous awards and have also been shown in juried shows across the Mid – Atlantic and Midwestern states. Her work was shown most recently at the River Gallery in Rocky River (a solo show that ran through September 2021). She has also had exhibits at University Hospitals Humphrey Atrium Gallery, The Beck Center for the Arts (Lakewood, Ohio), Georgetown University’s Medical Center, The Cleveland Institute of Art’s Weinberger Gallery, The Ratner museum (Bethesda, Maryland), the Bonfoey Gallery and various other galleries in Cleveland where she is based.
She is also delighted to be an Archived Artist of the Western Reserve!
Teaching
Visiting Artist (Painting), Cleveland School of the Arts, 2011
Artist-In-Residence (Painting), Cleveland School of the Arts, 2007-09