Betty Billups-Walton:
CLASS OF 1966
St. Bernard High SchoolClass of 1966
Playa del rey, CA
Betty's Story
P.S. Since you probably won't get to the bottom of this: here is the NEWEST info: MARCH 17-20 2023 I will have a major exhibit in Great Falls Montana during the C.M. Russell weekend. Hope you can make it...to see my art IN PERSON! Will also have that of Robert Walton (my husband)... If you want to chat...feel free to contact me...think this site has my email. If not, then visit my website: betty billups (dot com) Take care!!
Well...this may be a tad long!! BUT, we are talking about many years since High School...and this deals ONLY with my career in the art field...nothing personal!! (also, should you share my web site with anyone ... drop me a line with their name ONLY ...no contact info....and should that person ever i purchase or commission me to create any art work for them, you will receive up to 10% of their TOTAL!! Forever!!)
Now, back to "history"! After Graduating from St. Bernards, I went 2 years to El Camino College, where I decided to major in the art field. From there, I went to the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design (on 3rd Street in L.A.) and studied illustration with great artists such as Reynold Brown, Joseph Morgan Henninger, Midge Quennell, and Don Putt Putman.
The first months after graduating, I was asked to be Vice President of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA), in charge of organizing & creating their Annual Illustration West Show 1972, which involved doing a call for entries, selecting judges, and designing and publishing their Annual SILA Catalogue, which was delivered the night of the opening (which was a FIRST for SILA!!)
Because I did this almost single handedly, I was offered the only Air Force Art Trip that year, traveling to St. Louis, to document the C-9 which is the USAF medical plane.
Someone from the U.S. Army saw this painting, and commissioned me to create a painting for the U.S. Army Art Collection, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. So I traveled to the NW, in order to document the landscape for this painting ... going as far east as Crow Agency in Montana. I totally fell in love with not just the area, but the Crow People...which brought me back to that area for the following 10 years, and which became the subject of many of my paintings. (My love affair of the Native American began when I was a kid: my folks had a Pima girl, by the name of Aggie, to stay w...Expand for more
ith us to finish high school. While with us, Aggie's father died, and my folks put 7 of her brothers and sisters thru high school in Laveen AZ.
On my way to Montana one time, I stopped by an artist friend's home, Bonnie Shields, when another artist called asking for our help mending some fences on an old ranch. Boots Reynolds (a well known Leanin' Tree artist) mentioned the ranch was for "rent"!? Need more be said? I moved up a week prior to TGD 1987… and have never regretted that move!! I lived on that 200 acre ranch up to 1990, when it sold...then I ended in the mountains southwest of Sandpoint Idaho, purchasing a 10 acre parcel with a Tudor style home in a ponderosa pine forest!
I have worked in the art field for 44+ years, both as a plein air painter and figurative painter, and I also do illustration and murals on commission.
If you have ever heard the term “plein air painting”… that term had NOT been used in the USA since around the 1920s. In '87 a gal from Catalina Island asked me to create ONE national ad for her, to promote a group she was starting called “Plein Air Painters of America” (PAPA). I convinced Denise that she would need a national campaign...so I prepared 22 full page color ads, from 1987 thru mid 1996, to promote the 30+ members. Now there is hardly an art group in the USA, that does NOT have a plein air group within their ranks!
Hope you will visit either of my web sites: just type in my name for one....they do NOT allow links on this site!! betty billups (dot) com & billupsfineart (dot) com
On personal info...in 1977 Bob (Robert) Black and I were married. Odd, cause I doubt he even knew who I was, altho his sister Pat Black and I were best friends! Long story...about 7 years later (the longest 7 years of my life) I prayed he could find someone he could be more open with, and finally he did! (FYI for those that knew Bob, he died in early 2019 after a number of years of an illness.)
So I soloed "life" up thru 2012, doing art shows and living in the wilderness of North Idaho. Then, thru a blessing was gifted with the love of another artist, Robert Walton (you can see his art on my website). We had 7 blessed years together (the shortest 7 years!) before he was taken Home! Been a tough journey since.
... Thanks for stopping in! Would be nice to hear from some of my school friends! Take care!
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