Cover Artist: Betty Efferson

The Vibrantly Creative Spirit of Betty Efferson

By Karen B. Gibbs

Photos by: Sydney Marie Johnson

Betty Efferson has a surprising confession to make. “I’ve not always been fond of art,” she said.

But don’t take her words literally. What she really means is she wanted to paint, but her creative genius rebelled against following someone else’s method for doing so.

“I want art to come out of me. I do not want to paint like everybody else,” Efferson said. And you can be sure she doesn’t.

Step into her Baton Rouge studio and your senses come alive. Vibrant hues greet you, smiling welcome in every color of the rainbow. Captivating artwork draws you in, teasing your imagination. Oversize canvases of bold abstracts and serene pastoral scenes vie for your attention. As your eyes dance from painting to painting, something magical happens. You’re swept away with the energy and excitement that permeates this space, and your spirit quickens in response.

Such is the wildly creative incubator that births Efferson’s fabulous creations. A high energy artist, she paints with total freedom, joyously open to the kaleidoscopic whims of her fertile mind. Immensely talented in pastels, acrylics, oils and mixed media, she produces a mindboggling variety of artistic styles from realism to abstract and everything in between.

“Efferson hasn’t restricted her artistic expression into any one style,” said Cathy Pennington Nystrom, owner of Frameworks Gallery that hosted a solo show of Efferson’s works. “Never shying away from new subject matter or technique, she comes to her easel with a fresh perspective.”

She also approaches every phase of life with that same fresh perspective. Not surprisingly, the 79-year-old artist didn’t begin painting until late in life. “I was a stay-athome mom who helped in my kids’ schools. I wanted to give them all the attention I could while they were growing up,” she said.

While the kids were still home, Efferson decided to explore her creative side by dabbling in decorative painting. It was easy enough, right? Just start with a pattern and fill in the color. “The problem was, I couldn’t stay within the lines,” she said.

So Efferson put her creative juices on simmer while she and her husband, Wayne, ran their clock and watch business in Baton Rouge. When Efferson was 59 years old, something stirred and her creative metamorphosis began.

The Journey

“On the New Year’s Eve before I turned 60, I decided to do everything I ever wanted to do,” she said. One of the first items on her bucket list was painting. Although she didn’t know anything about it, she signed up for a workshop on painting plein air—that is, painting outside, immersed in all the elements of the subject you’re painting.

Her first lesson began less than ideally. “My easel kept falling. It was a mess,” she said. Despite her clumsy start, Efferson impressed the instructor, Leonard Wren. “You’ve got a style. You’re gutsy. You go for it. You’re high energy. Don’t let anybody change it,” Wren said. That gave Efferson the encouragement she needed to “color outside the lines.” “People once told me my art was ugly because I couldn’t paint a certain way. “Well, I said, you know what, ‘can’t’ is not in my vocabulary. I can do this,” she said.

Efferson continued painting and entered many juried shows across the nation and even internationally. However, what catapulted her even further into developing her style was a class she took with Steve Aimone. “He taught me how to project my emotions. I liked that I could do that,” she said. “That changed me because I had been feeling really bad. I’d look at other people’s art and think that I couldn’t paint like them. I never thought my work was good enough.”

Aimone gave Efferson permission to continue to paint without a plan. “You’re not like everyone else, and that’s great. Just keep doing what you’re doing,” he told her. What was particularly exciting to him was the way Efferson could effortlessly change from painting in one style of art to another—and do it all so well.

Like the vibrant artist herself, Efferson’s paintings are always alive. “It’s for the viewer to look at them and decide what they want to see,” she said. ”I paint a tree but they may look at it and think it’s something else. That’s their right. They can look at it and always see something different.” Efferson’s art is always in motion, ever adapting to the viewer.

That’s what happened to one client who saw a video of one of Efferson’s paintings and, four years later, had to have it. The client told Efferson the painting made her feel as if she were lying under a tree, looking at the clouds through the leaves, and seeing a little cardinal.

“Well, there was a little red mark on the painting that I meant to be a cardinal, and she saw it as a cardinal,” Efferson said. “Every painting of mine is meant for one person. When that person sees it, they connect. They know. I love that. It’s like the painting found a home.”

It is not uncommon for Efferson to continue to work on some of the nearly 200 paintings that are awaiting “adoption” in her studio. As Efferson sees it, she’s adding to the story of the painting, a story that is only complete when a client takes a painting home. From the number of juried art show awards, commissioned paintings and international sales she has garnered, it is obvious people the world over want an Efferson creation.

One fan was so captivated by Efferson’s art that she decided to purchase some for West Jefferson Hospital. Looking at the signature on one of Efferson’s paintings, she did a Google search for an artist named Befferson but couldn’t find one. “That’s because I do not put a period after the first initial,” Efferson said. Eventually the art lover connected with B. Efferson, and the hospital bought several of her paintings.

One painting in Efferson’s current collection would make the perfect addition to a hospital or cancer center. Entitled “Beauty from the Depth,” the work is one of the most dramatic in her collection. It features two lavender lotus blossoms on a dark background. “It is not a black background but rather a combination of bright colors painted over each other,” she said.

Such a clarification is important because this particular painting expresses the emotional ups and downs that Efferson experienced when dealing with her

husband’s recent cancer treatment. A perennial optimist, she believes good always emerges from the trials of life just as the colorful lotus blossoms stand in stark contrast to their darker background.

The Process

Indeed, Efferson’s collection is massive and varied. One wonders how she creates such a large volume of unique art.

“The most difficult part of a project is deciding how to begin. I start off by scribbling expressive lines on the canvas to make that white canvas go away,” she said. “I want it to have some energy before I start. Then, I throw paint over those initial scribbles. I don’t have to make a decision about the color. It just happens.”

Efferson uses a limited palette. Warm and cool colors—blue, red, yellow, a white and a black/gray. “You find ways to come up with colors that make you happy. I take those colors and mix them like a family. Everything harmonizes,” she said.

While her palette is limited, Efferson has a widely varied style, “depending on which mood she’s in,” said Nystrom of Framework Gallery. “Many people respond to her rich, dramatic abstracts full of crimsons and deep blues and greens, while others find serenity in her impressionist paintings of classic Zen images like koi ponds. While her styles can vary, she’s not catering to the public, rather just being true to herself and her ever-evolving creative vision.”

While Efferson has placed some of her paintings in galleries around the country, she prefers to personally

show her paintings to customers and designers. “I want to tell them the story behind the painting,” she said. Efferson also encourages prospective buyers to take more than one painting home and see which one best enhances the beauty of the room.

Efferson wants to grace the home of CBS television anchor Gayle King with one of her paintings. “Gayle is so vibrant with her colors—yellows, oranges, blues,” she said. “I want to send her a painting to go in her home where she can enjoy it. I think that would be awesome!”

Is that her dream? Not quite. “I think I’m living it,” Efferson said. “And the best years are still ahead. Gosh yes! I’m taking care of myself. I want to live to be 100!”

Betty Efferson Studio is located in Baton Rouge at 9170 S. Choctaw. For more information, visit BettyEffersonFineArt.com. or Betty Efferson Art on Instagram.