Betsey Rice

Betsey Rice, an accomplished studio potter for over 40 years, has devoted the last decade to creating hand built marine life sculptures. As the 10th generation in her family to grow up on the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coasts, Betsey has enjoyed all the benefits the sea has to offer: walking on the beach, exploring the tidal pools of the shoreline rocks, clamming in the salt ponds, swimming and sailing in Long Island Sound, and most recently, kayaking. After being inspired by their sons, Betsey and her husband, Marshall, have paddled the waters of Alaska, Baja, the Carolinas, coastal Maine, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Arctic Norway and the Dodecanese Islands of the Aegean Sea encountering many species of sea life. Of all these travel destinations their local Quonochontaug Pond remains their favorite spot to witness the numerous migrating birds and mating horseshoe crabs. Shells, seaweed, egg cases, crabs and sea stars that we see every day on the beach display the grace and complexities of nature's finest designs.

Many of Betsey's sea creatures are created in oversized proportions to magnify these beautiful details we so often take for granted. Lobsters, sea turtles, octopus and her most recent piece, the sea otter, are her attempts to capture the diversity, adaptability and the grace of Creation that collectively unite this planet. All pieces are made of high-fire stoneware or porcelain and can be hung or displayed inside or out. Many are multi-fired to attain the depth of coloring.

Betsey majored in advertising design at Green Mountain College and went on to study pottery with Robert Westervelt, Alice Wills, and MaryAnn Stella-Killilea. She has continued course work in ceramics at Connecticut College, the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Community College of Rhode Island, Salve Regina University, the South County Art Association and the Worcester Center for Crafts.