Elizabeth Ming Cooper. New Mexico.waow
| Landscape | Flowers | Figurative | Plein Air | Plants | Animals |
“ Grasping and sharing the beauty of life’s small fleeting moments.”
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Women Artists of the West
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Elizabeth Ming Cooper
Beth and her husband Billy, live on a small horse ranch in Santa Fe, NM about 7 miles from the historic Santa Fe plaza. They moved to Santa Fe permanently in January of 2018 and in April of 201 Beth opened her art workshop space Bluebird Studios, LLC., the “Atelier of the West”. Beth hosts fine art workshops in oil, water media, pastel and sculpture and brings in the country’s most esteemed artists for 3 to 5 day painting retreats.
Beth and Billy also have two grown children and currently have 5 grandchildren, Olive, Lincoln, Linden, Gus and Wesley with one due in August of 2025. They have three horses, Duke, Dolly and Sunny and four dogs, Nellie, Bluebell, Garth and Birdie. All the above makes for a lively and lovely chaotic life at Bluebird Ranch.
Beth started her painting journey seriously about 20 years ago and soft pastels is her main medium. She has dabbled with oils, but always comes back to her first love – soft pastels. The luminosity and pure pigment applied to sanded paper is her vibe. She paints both in plein air and in her studio, but finds her most spontaneous work is done out side “in the open air”.
WAOW - Women Artists of the West, Associate
My Golden Triangle
“Daily, I find a dozen potential paintings in my visual world, which is a great blessing to me. The art of seeing and helping others to see and grasp the beauty of life’s small fleeting moments is the desire for my art work.
Whether it is sunlight glowing through a flower petal, golden backlight on a child at play or the soft glow of evening light coming through the trees on a mesa or mountain top, these captured moments and slices of life are the whispers of a higher power and what makes up life itself. Through painting I hope to evoke a memory or a feeling to the viewer and share the emotion of a slice of time.
Many of my painting subjects come from the lands where I grew up. I call the areas between Santa Fe, NM; Angel Fire, NM and Oklahoma City, OK my “golden triangle.” The inspiration I find in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico is perhaps my greatest painting joy. I believe I do my best and most spontaneous work is outside painting “en plein air.” I have been told I’m a “zoom-in” painter which means I select a small vignette of a larger landscape to focus upon.
Besides my landscape and plein air work and since becoming a grandmother, I find a great amount of inspiration and enjoyment in capturing vignettes of children at play, reading, sleeping or discovering something new.
I am enjoying working in soft pastel on sanded paper. My husband and I moved to Santa Fe, NM full time in Janaury of 2018 from Golden, CO. We are exactly where we are meant to be. We remodeled an older home and have happily living at Bluebird Ranch.
I also opened an art atelier in 2021, called Bluebird Studios www.bluebirdstudiosantafe.com and I bring in the best artists in the country to teach workshops during the spring and late summer.”
