Bettie Ward, “Swoon and Coo,” 2025, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 40 x 40 inches
"The first time I encountered Bettie Ward’s artwork was at Ruiz-Healy Art’s 2025 exhibition Vast and Varied: Texan Women Painters II. Her painting, Swoon and Coo, struck me as an environment that is part garden and part imagination. Three birds emerge from dense fields of different flowers beneath a commanding, gold sun. I remember thinking, 'Who is Bettie Ward, and how does she make objects in tandem feel so alive?'"
- Christopher Karr
