Betty Greer

About

Betty Greer is a Scottish, self-taught figurative oil painter and writer. Her debut collection, The Path, explores the joy, freedom, and possibilities that open up once we live a life true to ourselves.

Statement

I'm Betty Greer, a Scottish, painter and writer based in Turkiye. I spent most of my career in finance before I left Scotland and started again — a different country, a different life, and with a paintbrush I'd never picked up before. My work isn't about the process of healing. It's about what comes after — the life that opens up once we have done the inner work. Most stories about difficult chapters in life end at the moment of recovery, as if that's the whole story. My work concentrates on what happens next: the joy, the freedom, the possibilities that are waiting for us at the other side, once we finally let ourselves reach for them. With every painting, what I'm really after is a feeling — the emotion held inside the story I'm telling, whether that's stillness, release, or the moment just before something changes. The image is the way in, but the feeling is the point. My debut collection, The Path, is 21 paintings that trace that territory — women reclaiming themselves and stepping into what comes next. Each painting has a companion chapter in my book, The Life That Waits, where I write about my personal story behind the image, and invite the reader to reflect on what it means for them through their own writing and creativity. I paint in oils, starting with a cool or warm underwash depending on the palette I'm working with. I then outline my composition in a colour based on the colours in the painting itself. From there, I work wet-on-wet across 4 or 5 passes, usually starting with the background and building forward. I write notes to myself between passes to ensure I capture the feeling or mood I set out to create. I prefer to work in oils as they can be easily blended to achieve atmosphere, and hold light in a way that feels alive. I didn't train as a painter. I came to it the way I came to most of the biggest changes in my life — by deciding, and then doing it. That's really what all my work is about: the moment you stop waiting for permission and start living the life that was waiting for you all along.

Exhibitions

Recognition