Bettye Barclay is an artist who works in a variety  of media including acrylic, watercolor, mixed media, silk  painting, and clay. She has received numerous awards for  both her clay work and her paintings.

 

Her main focus from 1983 to 1998 was clay. During that time she exhibited and sold her work in fine craft  galleries throughout the United States. Her studio in the  mountains of Southern California became a place of great 

contentment and inspiration as she spent the years from  1988 to 1998 working in that environment.

 

After closing her clay studio in 1998 and moving  to Santa Monica full time she spent more time painting and 

began exhibiting her paintings in various locations in Southern California. Bettye’s paintings have been exhibited in  solo and group shows at many local venues including Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine, Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery, L.A Artcore Brewery Annex, and  others. Her paintings are in collections in California, Hawaii, Texas, and Colorado In 2008 she again started working with clay. Bettye especially loves the excitement of the fire and smoke of  raku firing, a process in which the raku glazed pieces are  removed from the kiln with tongs when they reach a temperature of 1800 degrees. The pieces are quickly put into  metal cans containing newspaper, which flames from the  pots. The cans are covered and the pots stay in  the covered cans for about twenty minutes. The pieces are  cooled in water, and it is then possible to see the iridescence and amazing color of the raku pieces.

 

Bettye's clay pieces have been exhibited and sold  in fine craft galleries throughout the United States, and are 

also in collections in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, and Korea.

 

At this time Bettye continues her creative expression in clay, acrylic, watercolor, and silk painting, using 

whichever of her chosen media are necessary for the creative ideas she seeks to express.