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John Betti
ITALY
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“Painter, illustrator, cartoonist, graphic artist, humorist, writer, I am a bit of all these.”
John Betti lives with his wife, Elisabetta, his son, Giacomo, and his cat, Skitty, in Fano (Pesaro-Urbino), Italy. He is a painter, illustrator, cartoonist, graphic artist, humorist, and writer, John Betti is a bit of all, but to sum up his artistic activity, perhaps the right word is "storyteller with a brush."
Sitting Cat | Oil
$1,600
The cat has always been present in my paintings. One day the Cigarini Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland, invited me to participate in the "Festival des Animaux", an important collective exhibition that it organized every year. I did some paintings where cats were no longer the funny companions of human characters, but real protagonists. It was a great success.
His father was a surgeon, and his mother was a sculptor. He absorbed art from an early age as if it were in his very blood. It could be said that he was born with a pen in his hand. As a child, keeping him calm was as simple as giving him a sheet of paper and a pen. He would draw for hours without disturbing anyone—always with a pen, rarely with a pencil, and even more rarely with colors.
Pensiero | Oil
$2,000
Whatever we do, the basic message that we all send is:
"I want to be loved!"
For artists, perhaps the need is particularly acute, maybe we are more sensitive than average,
But we must be careful of our narcissism, which today prevails everywhere.
We should therefore first begin to love! It is the most difficult thing.
He filled his drawings with action scenes crowded with characters, inspired by western movies or football matches he saw on TV. He also spent time watching and studying illustrated books and comics. Even at school, he couldn't stop drawing. His notebooks and textbooks were filled with sketches, caricatures of his friends and teachers, and imaginative doodles.
“As a child, all I required was a sheet and a pen, to keep myself calm.”
Despite his natural talent, he did not immediately recognize his true calling. He did not attend art school but instead enrolled in a Classical High School. Torn between a father who was a surgeon and a mother who was a passionate artist (and a breeder of Basset Hounds), he remained "halfway" between both worlds. Eventually, he chose to study Veterinary Science at university and graduated in that field.
Talkin'to me? | Oil
$900
Someone said that the artist, even when he paints a still life, is as if he were naked in front of everyone.
I’ve always been fascinated by “faces”.
Of people, of animals, but also things.
Wherever I am, I find faces.
The facade of a house, the wall of a mountain,
a variegated marble tile,
the front of a car...
Any object can transform into a face that looks at me.
Cat Faces n1 | Oil
$2,500
Betti’s exclusive piece goes like this:
“Facce da Gatto – Cat FaceS
The Cat is my ‘alter ego’.
But it’s also your ‘alter ego’.
It is a transfiguration of the Human.
I am a figurative artist. In my work, I have always explored the Human.
The Cat, the face of the Cat, helps me to go deeper:
it allows me to represent, through the pictorial medium,
the most diverse human types.
bringing out our moods, our passions, our most hidden vices,
thanks to the filter of the ‘Feline Mask’.
That hides but reveals.
It strengthens the expression of a feeling
But, at the same time, it seems like he is joking.
For example, in one of these Cat Faces
I can recognize a flaw of mine,
but it doesn’t embarrass me,
I don’t have to mirror myself completely in him.
After all, he’s just a cat. Indeed, I even like him!
The cat is mysterious, ambiguous, unsettling, changing…
In fact it is so plastic and flexible that it offers us infinite nuances to play with.
Then I can laugh at my worst defects
If I find them in a Cat Face.”
“Situations are often represented in an intermediate, blurred and implicit phase, where things are going (perhaps) to happen or are (perhaps) just happening.”
“It’s not natural for me to create a painting without the presence of at least one person (human or animal).”
Later, when he was required to complete his military service, he moved to Rome. In the "Eternal City," a world of beauty opened up to him, and he rediscovered his artistic passion. Among other things, he attended a school of comics and later the "Scuola Libera del Nudo" at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was during this time that he fully dedicated himself to a professional career in art.
Come Play with me | Oil
$2,000
For me drawing has always been the most natural thing, since childhood. I just needed a black mark of pen, pencil or marker. The color I came later.
Moving from drawing to painting, I completely stopped using black. And I only use oil color.
Over the years, he has collaborated with magazines, newspapers, children's book publishers, school book publishers, advertising agencies, and public institutions. He has also exhibited his paintings in Italy, Austria, Germany, and, most notably, in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Cigarini Art Gallery. His artistic journey has been shaped by his broad experiences and international influences.
La "Gattamorta" (the Sly One) | Oil
$1,300
The oil color is warm even when it’s cold. It’s bright, fragrant, "tasty", enveloping, embraces me.
Doesn’t matter if it takes a long time to dry. It allows rethinking and overlapping without losing the freshness of the brush stroke.
Since he was young, he has always had a strong "cosmopolitan" spirit, which is reflected in his stage name, originally just a playful nickname given to him by a friend. His real name is Giovanni Giombetti. "John Betti" is not only an "Italian-American" synthesis of his name and surname (both pronounced similarly), but it also represents the two key aspects of his personality. "John" symbolizes the world, adventure, and discovery, while "Betti" means: Italy, Roots, Introspection, and Religious Sense.
The paintings, when they are not made on commission, come from a deep need: As Federico Fellini said of his films: "I make them because I must get rid of them"
The wise Persian | Oil
$650
“At their core, my stories are always stories of love—where playfulness, fairy-tale magic, and irony weave their way into my art, sometimes subtly, sometimes boldly."
Sad Boy | Oil
$650
My sister and I grew up with many hounds. Great fun!
But now I have a lovely female cat named Skitty (18 years old).
My wife, my son and I passionately love her.
His art is unmistakably figurative. It is unnatural for him to create a painting without including at least one person, whether human or animal. Even in his most "dreamlike" or "romantic" phases, where elements of nature dominate (the sea, the night, the rain, a hurricane), a marginal, stylized figure is always present. His work always contains, even if subtly, a small "story." Even when designing objects for advertising or educational purposes, he instinctively animates them with life and personality.
I could define my painting a kind of Expressionism "All'Italiana", meaning: the strong colors, stylization or "caricature" modulated by classical tradition (from which I come anyway) and by my "Mediterranean" character where usually (not always) Day prevails over Night.
Violetta | Oil
$650
Ultimately, John Betti's stories are always stories of love. His playful, fairy-tale, and ironic nature shines through in his work in subtle yet undeniable ways. He often represents situations in an intermediate, blurred, or implicit phase, where something is about to happen or has just happened. His painting style is bold and expressive, using solid, saturated colors. He enjoys creating dynamic interactions between background and foreground tones and playing with warm and cool colors. In recent years, after exploring themes like fairy tales, women, lovers, brides and grooms, and animals, he has focused more on characters, obsessively studying faces, expressions, and emotions. These faces, as they gaze back at us, each tell their own unique story.
Cat Faces n2 |Oil
$2,500
I'm right there, inside each of those characters who look at me as I paint them. Using different styles, different color combinations, in front of that face I am already in the heart of the matter. Immediately.
There are no scenes, backgrounds and other objects that would distract me from the goal:
Seeking my Truth. Tear apart the veil that separates us from knowing who we are and finding our "fulfillment". God knows if I’ll ever find it.
“Since I was a boy, I always had a great ‘cosmopolitan’ spirit, which is also expressed in my stage name, which was originally just a playful nickname given to me by a friend.”
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