Bette A. Naughton

Bette A. Naughton grew up in a household where the arts and the written word were woven into everyday life. Some of her earliest memories involve drawing alongside her mother, tracing images on steamed kitchen windows and doors, and sitting around the table after dinner sketching with siblings. Creativity was not treated as a special occasion but as a shared, ordinary practice, one that was encouraged and celebrated.

Her family provided a strong foundation for creative exploration. Both her older sister and brother attended art school, her uncles worked as architects, and her mother was consistently writing poetry and drawing. Her father supported her early interest in fashion, encouraging her to design her own clothes and gifting her a sewing machine along with endless fabric. This environment normalized making as something joyful and valuable, shaping her confidence as a creative thinker.

Naughton’s earliest formal interests were in fashion design, which led her to attend university for design studies. Fine art and painting entered her life later, but when she first picked up a paintbrush, the experience felt instinctively familiar, as though it were something she had done many times before. That sense of recognition solidified painting as a central part of her practice.

Although she did not pursue a traditional fine arts degree, Naughton later earned a second degree in art education and has continued to build her skills through classes, workshops, and sustained self-directed study. Since beginning to paint, she has immersed herself in learning, researching techniques, and challenging her own assumptions in order to grow as an artist. This blend of structured learning and independence continues to shape her approach.

Her work remains rooted in realism, with oil paint now serving as her primary medium after beginning as a watercolorist. While she occasionally experiments with pastels, acrylics, and other materials, she consistently returns to oil painting, drawn to its depth and expressive range. Her realism leans toward the contemporary, prioritizing atmosphere and emotional presence over strict documentation.

Recurring themes in Naughton’s work center on moments and memory. She is drawn to fleeting instances, a flower just beginning to bloom, the way light cuts across a room, the quiet drama of sunrise or dusk. These moments feel like privileged glimpses, easily missed by those passing through. For her, noticing and preserving them is both a gift and a responsibility.

Her influences include artists such as Frida Kahlo, Johannes Vermeer, Edward Hopper, and Vilhelm Hammershøi. She is especially inspired by how these artists use light to convey mood and interiority. Like Kahlo, she resists labeling her work as surreal, emphasizing that she paints her reality rather than dreams. Many of her pieces, which she calls Conversations with Myself, reflect a wandering, introspective thought process translated into visual form.

Naughton’s creative process is methodical and reflective. She begins with extensive reference photography and sketching, often revisiting objects from childhood that she collects and preserves. She cultivates flowers specifically to paint and maintains a pollinator garden that functions as both subject matter and sanctuary. A typical studio day includes reading for inspiration, gathering objects, preparing canvases, and listening to music that aligns with the emotional tone of the piece, sometimes the same music for weeks at a time.

One particularly meaningful work, Growing Up a Girl, was created as a memorial following her mother’s death. The painting depicts her mother at a vanity surrounded by the objects of mid-century womanhood. Through making the piece, Naughton came to understand that while she admired her mother deeply, she ultimately chose a different path, one centered on intellectual curiosity and creative freedom rather than prescribed ideals.

Success, for Naughton, is measured by honesty and craft. If she feels she has translated what was in her heart and mind onto the canvas with care and intention, the work has succeeded. Looking forward, she hopes to reach a wider audience and pursue gallery representation, while continuing to paint with authenticity rather than catering to trends or expectations.

Her work is deeply informed by her personal life as a gardener, nature lover, and family-oriented person. When she is unable to paint, she feels unmoored, a clear signal of how essential creativity is to her well-being. Through her paintings, she invites viewers to slow down, notice beauty, and honor the fleeting moments that shape memory and meaning.