Bea Ortiz is a Spanish-American artist whose practice is rooted in painting and drawing, and expands through participatory installation and interdisciplinary collaboration. She studied fine art and art education in Spain before moving to New York City in 1998, where she built an international career as a decorative painter and muralist while developing her personal studio work. While in New York, Ortiz completed large-scale commissions for private and public spaces, exhibited in group shows, and co-created multidisciplinary projects in Spain. Since relocating to the Catskills nine years ago, she has devoted herself full-time to her artistic practice, presenting both solo and group exhibitions in the region and developing projects that merge visual art with dance, music, and live performance. After nine years in the Catskills, the artist is ready to move back to Brooklyn and start a new chapter in her career.

When asked how she became an artist, Ortiz explained that growing up in a family of artists, she was encouraged to pursue her dreams and started painting at the age of 3. Born in Barcelona, she grew up in Valladolid, two hours North of Madrid, Spain’s capital. Valladolid is known for its grandiose art, significant historic sites and a rich culinary scene.

While studying fine arts at the University of Salamanca, one of the oldest universities in Europe, Ortiz specialized in painting. Thereafter she pursued a Master’s degree in Education, planning to become a teacher. Around that time, she took a trip to New York City with a friend, a trip that would become a life-changing experience for her. A year later, in 1998, Ortiz moved to New York and started a new life. Having long been fascinated with the American cinema, she found New York to be the city where everything was possible.

Through friends of friends, she found an apartment. Shortly after, she was commissioned to paint a Miro-inspired mural in a restaurant. After that, her career took off. As a muralist, Ortiz worked extensively with designers on various decorative art projects both in public institutions and in private homes. Performance art has always played a role in Ortiz’s work. She likes to create large installations by collaborating with dancers and musicians in multi-disciplinary projects.

While working in New York City, Ortiz developed a studio practice by painting regularly in a studio in Brooklyn that a philanthropist had made available to creative types to pursue their interests. Then in 2017 she moved to the Catskills and, for the first time, she became a full-time artist. Inspired by the surrounding natural beauty and without the pressure she experienced in the City, Ortiz found the space and time to create like never before.

Asked about her influences, Ortiz explains how music plays a role, although for the most part is just her intuition. She loves the music of Arvo Part, a minimalist style inspired by Gregorian chants. Oftentimes however, Ortiz regards the artistic process as mostly meditation.

Since 2010, Ortiz had been working on “Patterns of Change,” a large display comprised of 128 individual abstract drawings, each the size of 9” x 12”, ink and acrylic on paper. 64 drawings are black ink on white paper, and 64 are white acrylic on black paper, all installed in a large grid evoking celestial events, black holes, cellular divisions, and fluid dynamics. The drawings are sold individually or together. The overall grid structure, Ortiz explains, allows the viewer to contemplate how “the illusion of individuality gives way to an experience of universal interconnectedness.” “The whole has more weight than each individual piece,” she adds. Even when one drawing is moved to another place on the grid, the whole tableau is still cohesive and reads visually the same.

One of her most recent projects is “Above,” a series of eight oil paintings ranging in size from 10” x 10” to 24” x 24”. White on blue, these abstract works are reminiscent of the Catskills sky. The artist created a special combination of cobalt, ultramarine and cerulean hues to give the paintings a distinctive look. All but the largest painting in the series have been completed.

Reflecting on her time spent in the Catskills, Ortiz finds it a unique experience, artistically enriching, the only period in her life when she worked as a full-time artist. Time will tell just how impactful her life in the Catskills will be on her future work.  

Moving back to Brooklyn, she would love to try other artistic disciplines, maybe even doing murals once again with other artists. She will be a different person however than the person who left Brooklyn to move to the Catskills nine years ago.   

Ortiz’s studio, located in the Commons Building in Margaretville, is open for the last time this summer in July and August every Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4 pm.

You can learn more about the artist at https://www.beaortiz.com/.