Betsy Jacaruso | Painter
Betsy Jacaruso Gallery & Studio | Chocolate Factory
54 Elizabeth Street | Red Hook, NY 12571 | 845-758-9244
betsyjacaruso@gmail.com | www.betsyjacarusostudio.com

Betsy Jacaruso grew up in Rhinebeck, New York and is a longtime Rhinecliff resident.  She is a graduate of Dutchess Community College and received her BFA with honors at the Pratt Institute of Art and Design in Brooklyn, NY in 1979.  In 2005 Betsy was awarded the Individual Artist “Executives Arts Award” from the Dutchess County Council for the Arts.

Although she is best known for large watercolor botanicals Betsy also has a passion for painting landscapes and still life. Her method of applying color washes, combined with strong skills in composition and draftsmanship, gives her work its unique personal style. Extensive travels throughout the Hudson Valley, the Southwest, and Tuscany have broadened her world, allowing her to draw visual inspiration while clarifying her own technical expertise in her chosen medium. Betsy’s current work explores atmosphere and luminosity in landscape.

Betsy paints and teaches in her studio and gallery at the Chocolate Factory in Red Hook and The Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Her students find her mastery of the medium invaluable in the process of learning to handle the complexities of watercolor painting. In addition, they respond enthusiastically to the warmth of her personality and strong nurturing atmosphere that is ever present in her studio classes.  Betsy is active in promoting the arts in her community and is currently co-chairing the Red Hook Community Arts Network.

Her work has been featured in both regional and international exhibitions and is represented in private collections throughout the United States and Europe.  Locally, her work is available in her gallery at the Chocolate Factory.

From a review by Dakota Lane in the Woodstock Times-
“Betsy’s paintings of Rhinebeck farms and river views are idyllic without being sentimental, depicting simple rhythms of growth and a peaceful interconnectedness between the manmade and the organic.”