Betsey MacDonald lives in Clayville, RI with her husband, 3 rescue dogs, 3 horses and a barn cat. She has a BFA in Fine Arts and an MA in Studio Art. She also completed a pre-med program. Betsey taught high school chemistry and biology for 25 years and art for 10 years. She introduced and taught both AP Chemistry and AP Art at her high school. As an art teacher, Betsey was always inspired by the creativity of her students and strove to use and understand a variety of mediums to improve her teaching skills.

Betsey works in oil, watercolor, pencil, pastel, charcoal, collage, and printmaking. She has illustrated 3 children’s books, one of which also wrote. Betsey has designed posters for the United Nations, the Westport Harvest Festival and the Ocean State Marathon. She has had more than 25 solo exhibitions and has sold more than 500 paintings. . She is a juried member of the American Academy of Equine Art and the Wickford Art Association. Recently her work was included in the exhibit, “Dog Days” in NY City. Her watercolor “Lion Around’ was part of the International Exhibition on Animals in Art in Baton Rouge and two oils were included in the American Academy of Equine Art’s Fall Exhibition in Aiken SC. In 2021, Spring Street Gallery in Block Island hosted an exhibit of Betsey’s “Reflections” and Sprout Gallery featured her “Best Friends” paintings in the fall. Her work has received many awards and several people’s choice awards which are always rewarding. Betsey teaches at Wickford Art Association and  Rhode Island Watercolor Society.

“Being with animals makes me happy. I love spending time with my own dogs and horses and I love being in nature, hopefully seeing wild animals in their own habitats. One of my greatest teachers told me to paint what I love. So, that’s what I do. I paint animals  and nature to better see and understand. Most recently, I’ve been painting animals in water to see how the motion of water changes the image into an abstract form and I’ve been painting portraits of people with the animals they love. I’ve also discovered bird nests and strive to build them in graphite or watercolor with the care taken by the birds themselves. These recent challenges have opened up a whole new world of painting and seeing.”