Artists

Betty Guy

To live and be born in San Francisco is my good fortune. There was always music in my house. My mother taught me to play the scale when I was four years old. When I was eight, she took me to Europe to visit our family. The train ride across America, New York, crossing the Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and these great cities spoiled me forever. Upon returning from Europe, I won a city wide music contest in my age group, the best present I ever gave my parents.

Lowell was my neighborhood High School, and I attended U.C. Berkeley right across the Bay. Then I was off to New York and the Arts Student League. I saved money from waitressing to get to Europe. Later, I would travel around the world more than once.

At my first exhibit in Paris, my poster hung at the Café Les Deux Magots. Albert Sarraut, a former Prime Minister of France, bought two paintings. At home, I was given a show at Gump's and became their longest continuing artist.

In 1959, I was asked to paint John Steinbeck's house in England. John Steinbeck included me in one of his books, saying "don't just sit there, paint." I later wrote Surprise for Steinbeck regarding this visit with the Steinbecks. The Bodleian Library at Oxford Library now owns a copy of this book.

At my first museum exhibit, at the Legion of Honor, the late art critic Alfred Frankenstein of the SF Chronicle called it, "the most delightful small show of the year." The Queen of England was given my watercolor rendition of the Port of San Francisco.

Twenty five years ago I painted a rehearsal at San Francisco Opera and loved it. I am known as the company artist, so it is fitting that my heart should honor the music.