BETHANN MORAN-HANDZLIK
VIEWING ROOM
Wisconsin-born painter Bethann Moran-Handzlik creates expressive, lyrical paintings grounded in direct observation and memory. Working outdoors in every season and also in the studio, she captures fleeting, poetic moments with joyous brushwork and a deep sensitivity to light and form. As she describes it, “There are these phenomenally poetic surprises everywhere… I try to tune my antenna with nuance so I won’t lose the capacity to see them—even if briefly.”
Her subjects range from winter forests to sunlit gardens and intimate still lifes, reflecting both attentive observation and emotional resonance. Whether painting in the field or recalling a moment from memory, Moran-Handzlik’s work is an act of presence—honoring the vitality of life in all its beauty and impermanence.
Moran-Handzlik earned a B.A. from Wisconsin’s St. Norbert College and an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She has taught at several universities and leads workshops regularly. Her work is widely collected in both private and public collections.
“When I paint, I stand ready, with my heart racing, trying to see, with vision, the experience before me. Sometimes it is really hard, but often enough, language leaves me for a while, and it is transportive.”
- Bethann Moran-Handzlik
GIFT (NAMED FOR THE CZESLAW MILOSZ POEM)
Oil on Linen
10 x 8” (Image)
11 x 9” (Framed)
“I’m striving to paint enduring images that are both personal and simultaneously tap into the universal visual, tactile language of paint.”
- Bethann Moran-Handzlik
TOM UTTECH’S WHALE BONE UNDER THE APPLE TREE
Oil on Linen
14 x 16” (Image)
15 x 7” (Framed)
This effort is strongest when my effort moves outside of verbal language, and is instead felt, intuited, and recognized as familiar and, oddly enough, also surprising.”
- Bethann Moran-Handzlik
OCTOBER DAHLIAS
Oil on Linen
30 x 30 (Image)
37 x 37” (Framed)
“The painting, the subject, and I are all conditioned to the same effects of cold, changing light, unexpected events…a gust of wind, a bird’s movement, animal sounds. This is why I paint from observation and memory, because I desire a relationship with the subject.”
- Bethann Moran-Handzlik
LET’S GO ON A PICNIC AND SIT IN THE GRASS
Oil on Linen,
12 x 12” (Image)
13 x 13” (Framed)
“The paintings serve as invitations and as memories ...to come sit low on the earth and take in the sensual beauty with someone you love being around.”
- Bethann Moran-Handzlik