Anatomy of a Storm, 2026 — acrylic on canvas, 44 × 30
Bette Ridgeway at LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, 2026
LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe Now Represents Colorist Bette Ridgeway
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My technique is controlled improvisation. Gravity is my medium. Images are caught with intent.”— Bette Ridgeway
SANTA FE, NM, UNITED STATES, October 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — LewAllen Galleries has taken on representation of new paintings by lyrical color abstractionist Bette Ridgeway. Her work will be featured in a major solo exhibition, Chromatic Luminosity, running from October 16 through November 14, 2026. Artist receptions are planned for Friday, October 16, 2026, 5–7 PM, and during Santa Fe’s Last Friday Art Walk on October 30, 2026, 5–7 PM.
Ridgeway’s newest canvases are filled with radiant color and delicate, fleeting gestures across space, revealing an ongoing engagement with Romanticism—one that blends a profound response to nature with intensely personal emotion.
These accomplished paintings come from more than 25 years devoted to lyrical color abstraction. They echo both the Tachisme movement of France in the 1940s and ’50s, known for its stains and splashes, and especially the influence of Ridgeway’s mentor Paul Jenkins, celebrated for his poured and stained works in the latter half of the 20th century. Ridgeway herself stands apart through a distinct and growing connection to Romanticism, merging a deep bond with the natural world and deeply felt personal feelings. That quality surfaces in the soulful, meditative sensations radiating from her translucent veils of color, tempering the spontaneity of her method and turning the paintings into carefully balanced compositions of timeless aesthetic grace.
Though the finished imagery feels gracefully fluid and spontaneous, Ridgeway’s work rests on deliberate construction and considered choices. On large, unprimed cotton duck canvas laid flat across her studio floor, she moves thinned fluid acrylics with sponges, mops, scrapers, and pure rainwater collected in New Mexico. This pour-and-stain technique lets pigment sink directly into the raw fibers rather than sit on top, allowing light to travel through the stained layers and creating a luminous atmospheric depth. As the high-desert atmosphere dries the moisture, the pigments settle into rich chromatic waves, held in place by subtle horizon lines and structural accents of color.
“Color is a vibrating frequency that interacts directly with the viewer,” says Ridgeway, citing Wassily Kandinsky’s premise that color directly affects the soul. “One color tells me the next; the moment paint meets wet canvas, the composition takes over.”
The overall experience is both exuberant and contemplative. Chromatic Luminosity presents a choice of signature stain works alongside recent compositions that bring fresh, vivid pigments into Ridgeway’s classic high-desert palette.
Bette Ridgeway (b. 1940) spent her youth in the Adirondack Mountains near Lake Placid, New York, where early exposure to Hudson River School paintings at the Albany Institute of History sparked a lasting interest in light and luminosity. After extensive teaching and travel across Africa, Australia, and South America, she made her home and studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has lived and worked for thirty years. Her work has appeared widely, including at numerous international venues.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Artist: Bette Ridgeway
Exhibition: Chromatic Luminosity
Venue: LewAllen Galleries
Address: 1613 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501
On View: October 16 – November 14, 2026
Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 10 AM–6 PM; Saturday, 10 AM–5 PM
Artist Reception: Friday, October 16, 2026, 5–7 PM
Artist Reception: Last Friday Art Walk Friday, October 30, 2026, 5–7 PM
Press Contact: Daniel Zeese | DZeese@lewallengalleries.com | 505.988.3250
Website: https://collections.lewallengalleries.com/
Samantha P Furgason
ARTWORKinternational INC Press
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Carlo Zanella produced and directed this video celebrating the career of Bette Ridgeway, an internationally awarded painter.
