LewAllen Galleries announces its representation of new paintings by lyrical color abstract painter Bette Ridgeway, and a solo exhibition of these works opening October 16, 2026 and running through November 14, 2026. An artist reception will take place during Santa Fe’s Last Friday Art Walk on October 30, 2026.

Awash with brilliant color and graceful, evanescent movements through space, Ridgeway’s most recent works convey an ongoing exploration and expanding connection with Romanticism, fusing a deep response to nature with profoundly felt personal emotions.

These masterful paintings reflect a career working with lyrical color abstract painting of more than 25 years and have resonance with both the Tachisme movement of France from the 1940s and ‘50s with its use of stains and splashes, as well as, more particularly, with the influence of her mentor Paul Jenkins who became famous for his own works of poured and stained paint during the latter half of the 20th century. Ridgeway, however, is distinguished in her work by a distinct and expanding connection with Romanticism, fusing a profound response to nature and deeply felt personal emotions that manifests in the soulful and meditative sensations that emanate from her translucent veils of color. It is this aspect of her works that modulates the spontaneity of her process and elevates them to carefully considered compositions of timeless aesthetic elegance.

While her art conveys a graceful fluidity integrated with spontaneity, Ridgeway’s imagery is predicated on deliberate construction and thoughtful decision-making. Working physically on large, unprimed cotton duck canvas laid flat on the studio floor, she manipulates thinned fluid acrylics with sponges, mops, scrapers, and pure rainwater collected in New Mexico. This pour-and-stain technique allows pigment to sink directly into the raw canvas fibers rather than sit on the surface, enabling light to travel through the stained layers yielding a luminous atmospheric depth. As the high- desert atmosphere evaporates the moisture, the settled pigments form rich chromatic waves anchored by subtle horizon lines and structural pops of color.

“Color is a vibrating frequency that interacts directly with the viewer,” states 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 whole presents an experience that is both exuberant and contemplative. Her upcoming exhibition presents a selection of signature stain works alongside recent compositions that integrate fresh, vibrant pigments into her classic high-desert palette.