Betty Guy

Betty Guy (September 15, 1920 – July 22, 2016) was an American artist, most notable for her work in watercolor landscapes.

Biography Betty Guy was born in San Francisco, California in the 1920s. She was the daughter of Joseph and Fania Lipschitz and had three older brothers: Boris, George and Irving. Joseph and Fania Lipschitz emigrated from Vilna, Lithuania to the United States with the three older boys, and Guy was born shortly after - the first of her family born in the United States.

Guy graduated from Lowell High School. She earned a bachelor's degree at San Francisco State University in English literature and attended graduate courses at the University of California at Berkeley. She furthered her studies at the Art's Student League in New York, the Alliance Française and L'Académie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France.

Early career When Guy was in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, she began taking art classes and used watercolors for the first time. She left Berkeley and began traveling. It was in Europe that she honed her skills as a landscape artist. Paris soon became one of her favorite subjects for her work. Her first exhibition was at the Gallerie Henri Tronche on Rue de La Boete. At that exhibition, she sold enough of her work to remain in Europe and continue painting.

Other Notable Exhibitions Betty Guy's artwork has been shown in galleries across the globe, including the Performing Arts Library and Museum in San Francisco, the American Library in Bucharest, Romania, the American Embassy in Bonn, Germany, the Curaçao Museum in Netherlands Antilles, Amerika Haus Exhibit in Vienna, Austria, Yoseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, and Gallerie Henri Tronche, Paris, France. She was a long-time exhibitor at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center Alumni House.

Later life Betty Guy completed paintings in France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Austria, Great Britain, Chile, China and many other countries throughout the world. Later in her career she experimented with mono prints and other mediums. She remained the company artist for the San Francisco Opera and participated as an artist in the Hearts in San Francisco public art installation. She was also the resident artist for Gumps for over three decades. Until her death, Guy lived in Bernal Heights, overlooking her native San Francisco.