Betty Christensen's Colorful Life as a Newtown Artist

Betty Christensen’s life is as colorful as the boxes of pastels and watercolors in the art studio of her Newtown home, as vibrant as the canary yellow that serves as the background in her painting of lilies that decorates one wall of her living room.

For nearly a century Christensen has enjoyed a full life with a wide range of interests including nature, travel, literature, music and art. She uses her artistic talent to capture her varied interests on canvas and paper. The prolific, multiple award-winning artist, who celebrates her 97th birthday today (April 11), is most known for her watercolors but she also paints in oils and she began dabbling in pastels in recent years.

“I work in anything and everything. I worked in watercolor primarily for about 40 years, and then I kept seeing people doing pastels. I was getting older and they say the only things you regret when you get older are the things you don’t do so I went out and got me some pastels. I was over 90. I’ve been doing it ever since and loving it mightily,” Christensen said.

It’s a testament to her skill that she can work in three mediums, said Alain “AJ” Picard, a Southbury artist. “I consider Betty’s watercolors among the most beautiful I’ve seen,” he said.

Christensen’s earliest memory of her creative talents dates back to first or second grade in her native Pennsylvania when she did an India ink drawing of a Thanksgiving scene with a hunter and a turkey.

“I still have that little sketch,” said Christensen, who fondly remembers sketching in notebooks throughout her school years. “I drew all the time instead of listening to the teacher,” she said.

She moved to Newtown in 1950 when her husband Willard got a job as an engineer at Avco Lycoming. He passed away a number of years ago.

“When we moved up here I was glad to give up commercial art and go into fine art,” Christensen said. Favorite subjects include rural landscapes, flowers, scenes from her trips to Italy and people. “I use my photographs for reference,” she said.

“There’s so much to paint in Newtown. I think I’ve scouted every back road and I mean back roads,” said Christensen, who became familiar with many of the town’s out-of-the-way places during her 20 years as a volunteer for . “You wouldn’t believe where some of these roads take you,” she said.

“This is a farm I found not too far from Newtown,” Christensen said, pointing to one of her countless paintings. I was driving one day and I found this road I had never taken before and there they were,” she said of a field of cows. “I enjoyed doing it very much. Cows are hard but if you have reference materials you can do it,” she said.

“I love landscapes and I love people,” said Christensen, who is beloved in return by her many friends and fellow artists.

“There’s something about the story of Betty’s life that has the fingerprints of heaven on it,” said Picard, who marvels that Christensen has managed to keep her creativity boundless and her heart full and child-like as she’s aged.

“Her 97-year-old vision is untarnished by some of the difficulties of life,” he said.

Kathy Peck, of Danbury, a friend of Christensen, said the artist has an authentic interest in other people, a spiritual grounding and a love of nature that serves as an inspiration to all who know her. “My life is better for knowing Betty,” Peck said.