Botanical Artist

Photo July 10, 2007 by Adele Cooke

Betty Shawcross was a resident of The Gables in the Willow Valley Retirement Communities. Her early years were spent in Haddon Heights, NJ, and her high school years in Schwencksville, PA.

Following graduation from Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA, Betty worked in the Business Production Department of N.W. Ayer Inc., an advertising agency in Washington Square in Philadelphia. In the late 1960s she worked in The Malacology Department as an assistant to Dr. George Davis, the head of the department at The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

After moving to Greenwich, CT, in 1971, Betty began her training in Botanical Painting at The Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford with Karen Brown, and continued for many years with Katie Lee in various locations. These included her classes at The New York Botanical Garden, her Botanical Painting Master Class at Charleston, SC, The Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, London, England, and at The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum of Art Institute in Tucson, AZ.

Betty was active in The Greenwich Art Society and served as President from 1980 - 1984. She was a member of The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and The Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators until her death. Two of her paintings were exhibited at the 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show.

Betty and her retired naval officer husband, Bill, now has a combined family of nine children, thirteen grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. Betty joined her husband fourteen years ago in Wilmington, NC, where she painted botanical subjects in the fields, woods, bogs and gardens of Coastal Carolina.

After living at Willow Valley since early 2006, Betty was eagerly recording the many beautiful botanical subjects here in Central Pennsylvania.

Betty's Art bio and artwork provided by her family.