Betty York is one of Florida’s new breed of artist whose rich and varied background has been the catalyst for her current success. Her watercolor and oil paintings created on location are a vibrant and joyous embodiment of old-world sensitivity. In recent years she realized her childhood dream of the artist she wanted to become.

Growing up in Kansas City she demonstrated artistic competence at an early age as evidenced by her ability to design her own clothes and paint favorite subjects. She had no formal art instruction until her senior year in high school. Thanks to the encouragement of her first instructor she entered state and national art competitions taking first place in all of them. On the basis of her artistic and scholastic achievements (valedictorian) she received two full scholarships; the first to Kansas City University and the second to Kansas City Art Institute, which was awarded by the Hallmark Card Company where she worked part-time during her years of study.

Upon completion of her schooling, she joined the staff of Hallmark as a full-time artist often winning prizes for her floral creations, a subject she still loves. After a few years at Hallmark she moved to New York City to pursue a career in modeling and television commercials, freelancing as a greeting card artist for Bergdorf Goodman and several New York based companies.

During the ensuing years she pursued careers in marketing, fashion, and even produced and hosted her own TV show. Her work enabled extensive travel to all parts of the world. Throughout she kept her long-standing love affair with art alive by attending workshops and studying with the best instructors she could find. She always looked forward to the day when she could devote full-time to painting. Now living in Sarasota she finds the slower pace and colorful ambiance, as well as the artistic climate stimuli, all she hoped for.

Her painting are exhibited regularly in art shows and are part of private collections throughout the United States and abroad of people who are attracted to her fresh and colorful style.