Bloomfield resident Beth S. Goldberg won her first art contest when she was 12 years old. Now, 80 years later, her art is still being recognized.
Goldberg specializes in abstract expressionism, cubism, surrealism, watercolor, collage and mixed media. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Northeast and beyond, most notably at the Lincoln Center, Heckscher Museum, Salmagundi Club, Roslyn Museum, and the Javits Center in New York City. In recent years, she has displayed her work in Connecticut at the West Hartford Art League.
“I like sharing (my art). I am a member of the National League of American Pen Women, which is composed of 5,000 women artists, photographers and musicians. There was an art contest where I won an opportunity to exhibit my work at the Sumner Museum (in Washington, D.C.), which was great,” Goldberg said.
Over the decades, Goldberg has won several awards, including the Woman of Achievement in the Community and a Women of Achievement in the Arts in Oyster Bay.
The 92-year-old’s work was recently featured by Artsy Shark, a website that “features and promotes artists by publishing individual portfolio articles.”
“I was very honored to be selected as the artist of the month. It was very nice,” Goldberg said.
“It’s encouraging you to go along. You don’t know exactly what the future holds and just deal with the present and look forward to the future and that’s it,” Goldberg said of the recognition. “Art renews your energy. You put energy into it, and it gives it back to you. You look at it and say, ‘Hey isn’t that nice? What a lovely image.’”
Courtesy of Beth S. Goldberg
Bloomfield resident Beth S. Goldberg is still creating art at 92 years old. Her work was recently featured by Artsy Shark, a website that profiles accomplished contemporary artists. (Courtesy of Beth S. Goldberg)
Back to the beginning
It all started as a 12-year-old growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Goldberg entered an art contest sponsored by the American Red Cross art contest involving U.S. history.
“I asked my mother to buy me some watercolors and paper. I entered a painting of Pocahontas canoeing down the river and won first place,” Goldberg said. “It’s nice to get a prize for doing something you love.”
Goldberg said in high school she had a very rigid teacher who wanted everything exactly in the lines and temporarily stopped painting.
“I was really interested in creating art and not in admiring it so in college I took art history. After my family was a little older, I took some adult education courses. I had a teacher who showed us works like Picasso or Matisse. We would go home and paint in the style of a certain artist and then develop your own flexibility. You study the artist but create your own style or imagery. It could be abstract, realistic or a landscape. It was a good opportunity to develop versatility,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg said her favorite art is abstract mixed media because “you can let your imagination really work.”
“A very popular piece that I enjoyed creating was Noah’s Ark. I use different media to create it and a lot of people enjoy looking at it. And I do, too because it does represent. Noah’s Ark the animals and the ark. Sometimes I do biblical pieces,” Goldberg said. “I’ll do watercolor, but this was a mixed media piece and a little on the abstract side.”
Courtesy of Beth S. Goldberg
Beth S. Goldberg’s “Hurricane.” Goldberg has created more than 800 pieces of art in her career. (Courtesy of Beth S. Goldberg)
Another piece she mentioned is called Progress.
“I challenged myself by walking through a parking lot and picking up whatever I found, and I said to myself, ‘Well, you know what? I think I’m going to make this into a painting’ and some of it included pieces of metal and tiles and that’s called Progress and I still have that piece,” Goldberg said. “I enjoy it. It was like the wheels of progress going forward. I think that when you get a positive reaction from people to your work, that motivates you to keep painting and keep relating and creating other work.”
While studying art history in college, Goldberg also earned a Bachelor of Arts in education and a Masters in guidance and school counseling at Brooklyn College.
She entered several art competitions and shared artistic techniques and her creativity at dozens of demonstrations and workshops at libraries and art leagues including in Connecticut over the last 14 years.
While her youngest son was at Hofstra University, she also pursued her master’s degree in art therapy at the school.
“It’s very inspiring to help seniors, geriatric patients, and people with dementia with art. They can relate to art,” Goldberg said.
“When someone has an image that they’ve created, they can describe the feeling that they have looking at it,” she said. “It bypasses any obstacles that they have to express. I find that sometimes with them creating art or relating to photographs, you can get wonderful insight and start a conversation with a patient. … They enjoy working with me.”
Since her time studying at Hofstra, the school has honored her with the George M. Estabrook Distinguished Alumni Award, the Grumbacher Medallion and the Julia Cohn Award of Creativity.
Goldberg used art therapy with her husband of 61 years, Benjamin, who died eight years ago. He had suffered from cardiovascular dementia.
“My mom made every effort aside from visiting him practically every day during his advancement of the illness,” said Goldberg’s son, Jeff Goldberg. “She would work with him in maintaining a connection through art and also showing albums and pictures, anything to stimulate that connection for as long as possible. My dad was at a place called Seabury and my mom even did presentations there, not just for the benefit of my dad, but for other clients or patients as well. That’s just the kind of person she is.”
The couple raised their four children in Long Island and now there are has seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren with another on the way.
Beth S. Goldberg’s “Gotham City.” Goldberg, who is originally from Brooklyn, New York, still creates and shows her art publicly. (Courtesy of Beth S. Goldberg)
What’s next?
Beth S. Goldberg estimates that she has created 800 pieces over the years. “I don’t sit down and count. It’s not, oh, let me see how many pieces I created. It’s when the spirit moves me and when I have the time and the material is handy,” she said.
At this point of her life, Goldberg said she’s not working on art every day because she likes variety including book club and sharing meals with friends at The Greens at Gillette Ridge in Bloomfield.
Lately, Beth S. Goldberg said she’s been spending time revisiting previous paintings “that need improvement.”
“I’ve been working on a still life of some flowers. I feel I’m improving it. I’m not finished with it yet because I think about it. I’ll put a painting that I want to work on and put it in my view so then I can think about it and decide ‘Oh, this is what it needs.’ It’s like a review,” Beth S. Goldberg said.
Jeff Goldberg noted that his mother has touched so many people with her “spirit and expression of creativity.”
“She continues to inspire people,” Jeff Goldberg said. “She is someone that is constantly reinventing herself. She’s creating art, teaching others and using her creativity to help others heal.”
“I enjoy creativity. I enjoy people and sometimes I just feel like creating something,” Beth S. Goldberg said. “As far as my longevity, that’s up to God. I try really to just enjoy different aspects of life.”