Betsy Payne Cook
Betsy Payne Cook paints exclusively with pastels, and is honored to be a juried artist member of the Pastel Society of America and to have achieved signature membership of the Connecticut Pastel Society (CPS) and the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod (PPSCC). Betsy is acknowledged as a juried Master Artist at the Cape Cod Art Center. Betsy is represented by Creative Hands, Osterville Village. Betsy paints in her home studio and en plein air wherever her travels take her.
Betsy records her thoughts and experiences as an artist in her e-newsletter and blog “Painting In and Out”. Her hope is to provide inspiration and insight while sharing her love of pastels and her life as a plein air and studio artist. In January 2021 Betsy began hosting Virtual Open Studio Visits for her followers, sharing live casual events while she works in her studio. She has been invited to be an instructor for the collaborative Plein Air 2021 series of workshops hosted jointly by the Cape Cod Art Center and the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the 2018 “Mastering Your Mark” Regional Art Conference held in Hyannis, MA. Betsy is delighted to be an art mentor for the ArtWorks program for high school students interested in pursuing a career in art. She teaches pastel workshops and classes, and is on the faculty of the Falmouth Arts Center and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, and has provided both workshops and demonstrations for regional and local art societies. Betsy organizes Cape Cod plein air classes and workshops including destination plein air painting workshops. She was honored to be a featured artist in the 2022 edition of Cape Cod Life’s magazine, Cape Cod Art.
Betsy’s pastel paintings have been exhibited in many competitive local and national juried exhibitions. In 2020 the Chatham Orpheum Theater, invited her to exhibit her paintings and paired the exhibit with a filmed interview for their Artists Series Program. A selection of her paintings from her series “The View Below- seascapes” hung in an invitational exhibit at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in 2019.
Betsy attended the College of St. Rose in her home town of Albany, N.Y, earning a B.S. Art Education & a M.S. Special Education. Her 30 year career as an educator and administrator ended in 2015 when she decided to pursue her love of art. Cape Cod was always a family favorite; and she made it her home in 1994 when she returned to the states after living in a small village in Wales, Great Britain for nine years.