Brenda Bettinson was born in 1929 in King’s Lynn and grew up in Rickmansworth (U.K). She was the only child of Randall C. Bettinson and Edith O. Mitchley. She attended Watford Grammar School for Girls and after receiving her School Certificate was awarded a county grant to attend St. Martin’s School of Art from where she transferred to the Central School of Art & Design (now both part of the University of the Arts, London, U.K.). She passed the Intermediate Examination for Art and Crafts administered by the Ministry of Education in 1948, followed by the Examination for Art in Illustration and the National Diploma in Design in 1950. She continued her studies in Paris, first as a painter at the Académie de Grande Chaumière and then at the Sorbonne in Etruscology. Upon her return to England she worked as freelance designer, found employment in the printing industry and ran a gallery in central London. During this time, Bettinson continued her studies at the Central and the University of London.

In 1960 she emigrated to the United States. She found exhibition opportunities in New York, designed record covers for 20th Century Fox and was soon offered teaching jobs. Brenda Bettinson was fond of saying that while the streets of New York were not paved with gold, they offered her meaningful employment and a decent career path. She retired as Professor Emeritus from Pace University where she taught for 27 years, chaired the Dept. of Art & Design in Westchester for 5 years and where she was a tireless advocate for the arts and humanities. She was active in campus politics and faculty governance, served on accreditation teams for Middle States and found time to counsel students, support colleagues, lecture within and outside the academy and stay current in her field.

As a painter her work, which was included in countless group and solo exhibitions, can be roughly divided into four periods: before 1960 (England), 1960 -1990 (New York), 1990 – 2007 (Maine I) & Maine II (2007 - 2020). Bettinson followed her own North Star and developed a style which is uniquely her own.

When not in her studio or at the desk, her motto being “never a day without a line,” the garden and woods around her house and playing the piano provided for decompression and renewal of her creative energies. A canine companion was never far from her heel or lap.

Brenda Bettinson died in her sleep at her home on Barters Island in late 2021. During her last months she was fortunate to have been cared for by our wonderful district nurse Laurie Anderson followed by a brief period of hospice care by the kind and competent team from Beacon Hospice.

Funeral arrangements were entrusted to the Riposta Funeral Home in Belfast, Maine where Aquamation (a less energy-consuming process than cremation) has taken place.

A mass was offered for Brenda at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, D.C. where 12 of her works from the sixties and seventies have found an appreciative home; another mass was offered for Brenda in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at Seton Hall University where Brenda Bettinson had a one-person exhibition in 1966.

Brenda Bettinson is mourned by those whose lives she and her art touched.

Bettinson’s work will continue to be represented by Mathias Fine Art. The gallery in collaboration with the Bettinson Society is expected to make further announcements in the months to come.