What’s interesting for me is a spectrum of abstraction and realism that evokes both stillness and vitality. The underpinnings are not so important to explain – a sense of presence, quiddity, and play are what I look for. I think life is hallowed and kind of mysterious. I hope the images resonate in a simple, essential way.
Artist Biography
In Memoriam
November 19th, 1946 - February 22, 2020
The following is an article form Obits.org:
Philadelphia artist and spiritual director Bettina Clowney died peacefully at home on February 22, 2020. Her husband David and sons Peter and Matthew were with her when she passed; she also leaves behind a brother, Craig Scull, and two grandchildren. Bettina was cremated as she requested. Memorial services will be held on March 21, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at the Church of the Holy Spirit, 2871 Barndt Road, Harleysville, PA. Bettina was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, the daughter of Air Force colonel Stewart Scull and office manager Helen Balmer Scull. She fell in love with painting and art history as a child. She graduated from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and went on to exhibit new work almost every year of her adult life. Bettina often said she painted because she had to. In mid-career, she spent 14 years studying iconography from a Russian master, and subsequently created traditional and modern icons for churches and collectors alike. Her work is in collections around the globe. A selection of her masterful and expressive paintings, including some of her icons, can be seen at www.bettinaclowney.com. Clowney’s paintings are alive with spiritual energy, strong, beautiful, accessible and profound, playful and startling, deeply rooted in tradition and traditional skills yet plainly contemporary, and uniquely hers. She exhibited the same qualities in her practice of spiritual direction, which she began with studies at the Shalem Institute. Bettina saw many dozens of directees over the past decades, always focusing on each person’s individual needs, and their own vital relation with the holy. As a wife, mother and friend, Bettina was loving, loyal, friendly, funny, full of humor and wisecracks. She was also particular about style and manners, shy, insecure, and, as she herself put it, “often wrong but never in doubt.” She both enriched and challenged those who loved her, and we would have had it no other way.
2003 “On Being Born,” The Other Side Magazine, January 2004
2002 Cover art “Featured Artist,” Kalliope, a Journal of Women’s Literature and Art, Volume 24 number 2 (Winter, 2002)
Collection
Commissions
partial list 2006 St. Monica’s Episcopal Church, Naples, FL
2003 Icon triptych, Deborah Payson
Portrait triptych panel for Rev. Anne Ritchings and Kate Hankinson, Harleysville, PA
1999 Icon of the Holy Trinity, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Chattanooga, TN
Icon of the Holy Trinity, Professor John Norton,Philadelphia, PA
Icon of the Holy Trinity, Janice May, Philadelphia, PA
Icon of the Crucifixion and Icon of Christ, Rev. Anne Ritchings, Harleysville, PA
Christ and children, Mr. Dean Burley, Philadelphia, PA
1998 Iconic cross, Church of the Holy Spirit, Harleysville, PA
Professional Experience
Lectures and Talks
2007 Bennet, PhD., Phillip, “Featured Artist: On the True Self,” Jungian Society of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Slide/lecture presentation, “Featured Artists Series,” Eastern University, St. Davids, PA
Exhibitions
Solo
2018 The Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia.
2017 Pennswood Gallery, Newtown, PA Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2014 Between Abstraction and Realism, Christine Frechard Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Church of the Holy Spirit, Harleysville, PA
2005 Essential Forms: One woman show, Connelly Center Art Gallery, Villanova University, Villanova, PA
Group
2017 Juried Group Exhibition, Awbury Arboretum, Philadelphia, PA
Center for Emerging Visual Artists, FMC tower, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Works on paper, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA Juried Exhibition
2006 Across the Line, Gallery at St. Asaph’s Church, Bala Cynwyd, PA
Group Show, University City Arts League, Philadelphia, PA Juror
Works on paper, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA Juried Exhibition
2004 From the Studio: Selections from the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour, Creative Artist’s Network, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Kate Ware, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2003 Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts), Wenham, MA Juried Exhibition
2001 Annual Benefit Exhibition, Pennsylvania Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2000 Women’s Exhibition, PNI Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1999, 1998, 1997, 1996 Annual Juried Exhibition: AURA (Association Uniting Religion and Art), Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA, and Doylestown Presbyterian Church, Doylestown, PA
1999, 1998, 1997 Annual Group Show, sponsored by Dr. Byron Braid and Ms. Michele Holzman, home of Dr. Braid and Ms. Holzman
1998 Group Exhibition of Icons, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC Invitational
Icon, Image of the Holy, Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA Invitational
1997 Art and Religion: The Many Faces of Faith, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies and the Villanova University Art Gallery, Villanova, PA Juried Exhibition
Watercolors, The Cosmopolitan Club, Philadelphia, PA Invitational
1996 Watercolors and Oils, Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA
Prior to 1996 Exhibiting artists at The Rosenfeld Gallery and Axis Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
