Betty Guy, American watercolor artist, Died at 95

Betty Guy was born on September 15, 1920, in San Francisco, California and died on July 22, 2016.

She was an American artist.

She was most notable for her work in watercolor landscapes.

Betty was the daughter of Joseph and Fania Lipschitz and had three older brothers: Boris, George and Irving.

The two, Joseph and Fania Lipschitz emigrated from Vilna, Lithuania to the United States with the three older boys, and Guy was born shortly after – the first of her family born in the United States.

Betty graduated from Lowell High School.

Guy earned a bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University in English literature and attended graduate courses at the University of California at Berkeley.

Betty furthered her studies at the Art’s Student League in New York, the Alliance Française and L’Académie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France.

She was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, she began taking art classes and used watercolors for the first time. She left Berkeley and began traveling.

There in Europe where she honed her skills as a landscape artist. Paris soon became one of her favorite subjects for her work.

Betty’s first exhibition was at the Gallerie Henri Tronche on Rue de La Boete.

The exhibition was successful, she sold enough of her work to remain in Europe and continue painting.

She returned to the states and began displaying her work at Gumps gallery in San Francisco, eventually becoming the longest continuing artist to display art with Gumps, surviving eight directors.

Guy’s first museum exhibit was at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco on December 15, 1961.

Betty’s exhibit was called “the most delightful show of the year” by then art and music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Alfred Frankenstein. Guy continued to travel and paint landscapes all over the world and amass an archive of hundreds of original paintings.

She completed paintings in France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Austria, Great Britain, Chile, China and many other countries throughout the world.

Further down in her career she experimented with mono prints and other mediums.

Betty remained the company artist for the San Francisco Opera and participated as an artist in the Hearts in San Francisco public art installation.

Guy was also the resident artist for Gumps for over three decades.

She resided in Bernal Heights, overlooking her native San Francisco, up until her death.

Betty Guy passed away at 95 yeas old