Elizabeth (Betsy) Podlach received her BA in English literature and fiction writing at Harvard University, where she was a Watson Scholar. While studying painting at the New York School and International School of Art in Umbria, Italy, she received awards from the Charles H. Revson Foundation and the Seligman von Simpson Foundation as well as several private grants and commissions. Her paintings are about relationships created by form, space and light. Says Podlach, “I work from direct observation, the beauty of objects in light, the anatomy or the landscape along with my unconscious. In doing so, I try to combine three-dimensional form and depth with the flat picture plane into a uniquely painted space. I work with color to create a light coming from within the picture, a stillness that reverberates. I use nature, formal principles, and my imagination to form a personal image.”
Her painting technique includes using oil paint and egg tempera, which she makes herself. The tempera creates a physical layer of white between the layers of oil. Podlach’s contemporary interpretations of traditional still life painting are the combined influences of the Abstract Expressionist Movement of the 1950’s and Italian Renaissance art of the 15th century. Her work expresses a definite contrast between light and shadow while striving to find an internal light within the painting rather than a direct source of light from the outside.
Podlach, who lives and works in New York City, is currently represented by galleries in New York City, NY, Carmel, CA, Bridgehampton NY, Lakeville, CT and Nantucket. Her work is in private collections worldwide, including the collection of Princess Donatella Brorghese, in Rome, actor Christopher Walken, in New York City, and ABC host George Stephanopolous in New York City. Corporate Collections include Pfizer, Inc., New York Universtiy, and a mural commission for the The City Wine and Cigar Company, all in New York City.