Beth-Ann Wilson’s path as an artist wasn’t always how many of us in Highlandtown know her today, as a vibrant painter running Night Owl Gallery, slinging drinks and sausage at Snake Hill Tavern, and supporting other local artists through her work in the district’s monthly First Friday Art Walks.
Beth-Ann is from Copiague, NY and moved to the Highlandtown Arts District in 2003 while attending the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her first “gig” in the arts district was via a classified ad for an internship at Schiavone Fine Art with one of the ha! founders, Dan Schiavone, who helped introduce her to the neighborhood and her first bartending job.
For a time, Beth-Ann stopped making art completely, but after two years as a restaurant manager, she decided she was going to get back to her painting roots and pursue her art while staying in the neighborhood she loved (Highlandtown!). She set up her studio in her Highlandtown home, which she shares with her husband and two dogs, and in 2015 opened Night Owl Gallery to showcase her and other artists’ work, as well as hold community workshops. The shop was open in Highlandtown for 6 years before moving to Station North, where she’s expanded the gallery to include artist studios.
Beth-Ann’s specialty is painting oil on canvas, now a less popular art form because oil paint is toxic, expensive, and has a long dry time and messy clean up as compared to acrylics. She’s studied oil painting for over 20 years and developed practices that are safe and environmentally friendly, like scraping paint from her glass pallet to avoid putting them down the drain, recycling her spirits, and wearing gloves.
Beth-Ann typically uses acrylic for her under-paintings (or base layer), as they allow her to work faster and with more vibrant colors. She’s also started incorporating collage and black-light reactive paint in her work, which has added a fresh twist on her current series, “graffiti girls”, which marries her love of painting chaos: pop-art and portraits.
Photo by Side A Photography, courtesy of Southeast CDC. Beth-Ann’s hair by Rachel Weaver at Fifth & Mane.
www.bethannwilson.com
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Contact: bethann@bethannwilson.com