Betty Southerland

Betty Southerland


Biography

I am a rebelliously-human artist; making figurative artworks exploring the human experience. In 2014, following a 20-year hiatus from art making, I restarted my practice to build my illustration portfolio, reclaim my artistic passion and rediscover the world and myself. 
I am mostly self-taught with a robust practice that includes life drawing with Drawing Cabaret Couture, painting live, accepting feedback from other artists, and regular study of master art works. I have been a professional Graphic Designer for many years and learned quite a bit about colour, form and space from retouching photos, creating line art and making works for print. Since 2020, I have challenged myself with goals of making "each one better than the last", consistently creating several illustrations per day. I am regularly amazed at what can be learned by following my intuition. Fashion Illustration offers me one of the best ways to practice figurative and portrait art but also gives me freedom to experiment. I like to push my practice, questioning what I think I know and I don't mind making "mistakes" because they give the work energy. My favourite materials are watercolours, pure pigment, oils, and ink.

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