About the Artist

About the Artist

Northwest artist Betty Vestuto continues her lifelong passion for nautical themes and launched her trademark art: ships and lighthouses painted on nautical charts.

Her art is owned by the likes of Shirley MacLaine, Burt Lancaster, former California Gov. Jerry Brown and Dom DeLuise.

Betty said she was thrilled when she heard Mr. DeLuise tell a talk-show host that his five Vestuto paintings are among the first things he would save if his house was on fire.

"I think that was about the best compliment I could ever get," she said.

The native of California's San Fernando Valley said she was an artist "from birth." She comes from a long line of Swedish fishermen; her grandfather's boat was an early subject.

Betty made her first money painting signs at age 13. Aside from weekend art-institute classes while in high school, she is self taught.

Her husband Louis' job at Hanford led them to the Tri-Cities, where she tired of painting on canvas and wood. She took nautical charts off the wall as backdrops, decided to paint birds over the glass coverings of some paintings, "and I haven't had an idea since," she said laughing.

Betty has turned to other kinds of paintings — sports, seascapes, abstracts, florals— but always returns to her niche, the sea.

She has painted all five versions of the USS California —the first two were yachts— and her painting of the USS Camden is a frequent gift for departing captains.

Her favorite subjects are fishing boats.

"They're like books," she said. "They all have a story to tell."