About the Artist

Florida's Self-taught Artist

Bettye Williams is a self-taught folk artist. After retiring from her job in the Domestic Department of the Polk County Circuit Court, Bettye Williams was ready for a change. She was 41 years old when she started painting and she immediately produced images detailing a Florida past. Bettye says, "There was no conscious effort on my part to become a 'memory painter,' a term I had never heard. Later, my gallery representative used the term to describe my work. I was painting scenes
from my past, something that I was familiar with."

Excerpt from Bettye Williams' Autobiography

"I was born in a cracker house that belonged to my paternal grandparents, Vance and Carrie Jarvis, on July 22, 1935. They lived in Jefferson County, Florida. Martha, my mama, recalls that at the same time her midwife was assisting her in bringing me into the world, she could hear the lowing of a cow in the woods nearby, trying to bear her calf alone. Mama sympathized. We all survived. It was God's will.

"When I was a few months old, my parents and older sister, Virginia moved into a run-down house on the outskirts of Monticello, the Jefferson County seat, 2 or 3 miles from town. Mama cooked on the fireplace for a while, using green wood from pecan trees it smoked more than flamed. Boards were missing from the floor next to the fireplace and we could see the hogs that belonged to the owner of the house walking around underneath. Still we had a home of our own. We lived there for a while, moved away, and then moved back there again. I can't imagine why, unless we missed the hogs. In the summer, my sister and I got sunburned while taking our naps because we were so fair-skinned and the tin-roofed house had no ceiling, only rafters. Once, in the kitchen, a snake fell from one of those rafters and nearly scared the daylights out of us." - Bettye Williams

Bettye is famous for her citrus paintings. Her aunt, Granny Mae ran a boarding house for grove pickers and many citrus paintings depict the labor the groves demanded from individuals and families. Orange groves are prevalent in Bettye's artwork and over the years, her citrus paintings have been extremely popular with Floridians. Even in paintings that are not about the citrus groves, like "Granny and the Good Book" and "Super Bowl Sunday," orange crates are being used as seats/tables and orange groves are in the background.

A distinguishing facet of the artwork is the depiction of old labels initiating a revival. Bettye's inclusion of labels in paintings extend from her Country Store Series to orange crates, which are always in demand.

Another important part of Bettye's art work is her personal writings. She calls the writings 'memory clips'. Memory clips are shortened versions of the stories behind the paintings and are similar to journal entries. Bettye says that she enjoys writing as much as she does painting. The writings address the context of the work. The memories demonstrate a little girl's acute awareness of her world, her value for life, and the love for her family.

"Before there is a painting, it is a memory."

"Later, when oranges were more available to us, my grand daddy would roll them until they were soft and cut a whole in the top for me to suck the juice out. I thought it was 'nectar of the gods' or something equally wonderful. I recently fixed one like it for my little grand daughter and she thought it was 'cool' to suck it. I don't really think her Mom thought it such a good idea! I hope she remembers it with the good feeling I have when I remember my grand daddy fixing mine. He always tore his open and ate the pulp when he finished sucking all the juice out but I didn't like it. It nearly choked me down!" -Bettye Williams

Excerpt from Bettye's Autobiography

"We got real uppity and moved into town, living in several inadequate abodes. One was a stripped-out school bus body that was parked behind an old dilapidated service station. Together, the two served as our new home. While living there, my sister and I had measles. Mama covered the windows (all forty million of them on that school bus) to keep the light out so we wouldn't go blind from the glare. She made us drink sassafras tea to make the measles break out.

Since then, I still haven't tasted one drop of sassafras tea. Thank God for home remedies. In my whole life growing up, I remember being taken to a doctor only two or three times.

"I would not trade my upbringing for all the silver spoons in the world. We were poor, I suppose, by the world's standards, but we weren't really. Everyone we knew or associated with was as lacking in worldly goods as we were and nobody pretended otherwise. We were unpretentious and unsophisticated and appreciated what we did have." - Bettye Williams

Bettye Williams Prints