Betina Fink is a landscape painter based in Arizona who creates small plein air sketches outdoors before taking them back to her studio to render larger, more detailed paintings. She draws inspiration from the Hudson River School and is classically trained, but puts her own expressive style into her depictions of places like the Cochise Stronghold and Mendocino coast. Fink also teaches painting at the Tucson Classical Atelier, where she emphasizes honing skills through classical techniques to allow for honest expression.

1. 56 DesertLeaf l April 2016
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The Artist
In the late 19th century, classically
trained Hudson River School paint-
ers packed up the tools of their trade
and ventured into undeveloped terri-
tory to depict wild places on a grand
scale. Often, humans (tiny by compari-
son) were included in the paintings to
emphasize the size and depth of places
many people saw only from the comfort
of cozy armchairs or exhibitions.
With classical training and a con-
temporary eye, present-day artist and
teacher Betina Fink ventures out into
the Arizona landscape and beyond with
her own kit, which—to keep the load
light—contains a minimal amount of
colors, brushes, solvent, and panels.
Interested in endangered lands and
places that have been saved, she cre-
ates small plein air sketches out in the
field and takes photos for reference be-
fore returning to her studio to render
a finished piece. Current favorite loca-
tions include Cochise Stronghold (for
15 years the home of the famed Chirica-
hua Apache chief), the San Pedro River
basin in Arizona, and the Mendocino,
California, coast.
“In the last five years, my work is
more overtly landscape. There is a calm
andabeautythatIenjoysomuch.When
you spend time painting or drawing a
place, you really appreciate where you
are in a deeper way,” says Fink, holding
up the oil sketch of a stream in front of
the more fully developed Cochise.
While the sketches do stand alone
as finished pieces, it is interesting and
educational to see the progression that
culminates in a larger painting benefit-
ing from an extended palette and time-
line that add movement and depth.
“The simple idea of how you paint wa-
ter—transparency, movement, the sub-
stance of it …” she trails off, looking into
the swirling eddies.
Fink’s studio has the atmosphere
of a quieter era of contemplation, when
students and apprentices began their
training by copying the old masters.
Drawings, plaster busts, bones, and
portraits keep company with her ex-
pressive, color-filled oil paintings. “I
think there is a real similarity in nature
and portraiture in terms of topogra-
phy,” says Fink, holding up a small oil of
a woman’s face, the light and shadows
mirroring the painted planes of the an-
cient rocks depicted in the painting Co-
chise Stronghold.
Fink’s style is recogniz-
ably her own—neither Im-
pressionist nor abstract,
though the influences can
be seen. “I was an abstract
painter for 20 years. I’m very
interested in the different
aspects of classical art, but
I also want to put my own
hand in there,” says Fink,
who originally came from
Delaware. She arrived in Tuc-
son at the University of Ari-
zona as a graduate student,
and returned after spending
seven years in Amsterdam
and other parts of The Neth-
erlands, where her interest in
classical art began.
Betina Fink Arts/Tucson Classical Atelier:
Classically Honest
Standing in front of her depiction
of the heated light of a desert day, Fink
explains: “Someone said that my work
doesn’t look very classical. My answer
is that I hone my skills, so when I paint
in my expressive style, I can be honest.
It’s a practice that takes some mindful-
ness—and I used that word intention-
ally. Making art makes me feel centered
as a person. Maybe that’s why I do it.”
The Teacher
Fink opened the Tucson Classi-
cal Atelier in 2014. The current atelier
(artist’s studio) movement takes in-
spiration from the French and Italian
by Beth Surdut
MendocinoHeadlands,oiloncanvas,24″ × 36″,2016
CochiseStronghold,pleinairsketch,
oilonpanel,10″ × 8″,2016