Betsey Hurd – Painter and Sculptor - Spring 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Betsey Hurd – Painter and Sculptor

by Shirley Ramsey

Davla – Glazed earthenware sculpture by Betsey Hurd.
My mother was a fashion illustrator and worked at home when my sister and I were growing up; one of my earliest memories is of her closing my hand around a crayon and telling me to draw. Both of my parents always encouraged me to be an artist, and I owe a lot of my belief in myself to them."

Betsey admits that all of her life, she has been a “horsey” girl and has done just about everything on horseback, from fox hunting in Virginia to trailing cows in the Missouri Breaks of Montana, from showing jumpers to starting colts. Her love of horses continues to this day; she has three Percheron cross mares and rides at least one horse a day, sometimes all three. She feels lucky to have an integrated life, where horses are her passion and muse, and where her daily routine centers around riding and caring for them.

Betsey grew up in Northern Virginia where she started riding at seven, and got her first pony, Porter, at age eleven. They competed in 4H shows in the pony jumper classes. She says she has tons of sketchbooks full of horses from those years in Northern Virginia, which was really horsey and wonderful. During her teenage years, much of the land was developed and the riding areas became scarce. In 1979 she moved to Montana to attend college. She thought she would never run out of room to ride in Big Sky country.

Betsey studied ceramics with the late Rudy Autio, internationally known for his large ceramic vessels decorated with women and horses. As a “starving artist” she did whatever she had to do to keep body and soul together: worked in a hospital, worked as a cook, did landscaping, galloped racehorses, and worked on sheep, cattle and horse ranches. Betsey never lost sight of her passion and still carved out enough alone time to paint and work in clay. By age thirty she was able to do that full time. Betsey started working in bronze a few years ago, which she finds very exciting. Next she wants to learn to weld, so she can make life-size horses!

The Four Blazes – Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36, by Betsey Hurd.
Unique to Betsey’s art is that it rarely involves humans. She has always found the secret life of animals interesting – their interactions, their pecking orders and their relationships. She is interested in the horse’s own story, because “it is who they are as individuals that we are initially attracted to; then we begin a relationship together.” Her art surfaces are mostly very textural, the work very loose and gestural, expressive of its “horseyness.”

Betsey received her BFA, cum laude, from the University of Montana, Missoula, in 1984 with concentrations in ceramics and drawing. She has made her living solely as an artist for 18 years and has always encountered a lot of help and encouragement from other artists, which is such a great “tribe” to be in! Her works are exhibited at several galleries in Montana, at Spirits in the Wind Gallery in Colorado and at another in Scottsdale, Arizona. Perhaps her most honored exhibition is at the White House. In the late 1980s Betsey was one of two artists from her state selected to decorate a wooden egg for the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. She later received a nice note from Nancy Reagan.

Some of Betsey’s work can be seen at www.betseyhurd.com and www.spiritsinthewindgallery.com

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