Author: :) Alison

Many people are inspired by the osprey featured on our osprey webcam.

Local artist Betsey MacDonald has generously shared some of her artwork with us!

If you have osprey artwork you would like to share, please email us at osprey@narrowriver.org.

Betsey MacDonald Artist Bio and Statement

BIO:  Betsey MacDonald lives in Clayville, RI with her husband, 3 rescue dogs, 3 horses and 2 barn cats. She has a BFA in Fine Arts and an MA in Studio Art. She also completed a pre-med program. Betsey taught high school chemistry and biology for 25 years and art for 10 years. She introduced and taught both AP Chemistry and AP Art at her high school. As an art teacher, Betsey was always inspired by the creativity of her students and strove to use and understand a variety of mediums to improve her teaching skills.

Betsey works in oil, watercolor, pencil, pastel, charcoal, collage, and printmaking. She has illustrated 3 children’s books, including “Fishhawk”, a story about the Osprey. Betsey has designed posters for the United Nations, the Westport Harvest Festival and the Ocean State Marathon. She has had more than 25 solo exhibitions and has sold more than 500 paintings. . All of her paintings are inspired by nature and animals. She is a juried member of the American Academy of Equine Art and the Wickford Art Association, where she teaches drawing and painting. Her classes in Wickford and the Rhode Island Water Color Society always focus on the observation and depiction of nature. Her work has been included in many juried exhibits in which her paintings have won numerous awards. Recently a large osprey piece was chosen for a public exhibit in Wilson Park to illustrate conservation. Betsey is currently in the thinking stage about a book project illustrating the activity in the Narrow River Osprey nest for a chronological year.

STATEMENT: Being with animals makes me happy. I love spending time with my own dogs and horses and I love being in nature, hopefully seeing wild animals in their own habitats. One of my greatest teachers told me to paint what I love. So, that’s what I do. I paint animals and nature to better see and understand their complexities.  Most recently, I’ve been painting animals in water to see how the motion of water changes the image into an abstract form and I’ve been painting portraits of people with the animals they love. These two new challenges have opened up a whole new world of painting and seeing.  I’m excited to say that theThe Narrow River Osprey Cam has inspired my latest idea of a watercolor illustrated picture book depicting the Osprey activity for a whole year.

As part of the Middlebridge Conservation Land Management Plan, the Town of Narragansett intends to remove the entire asphalt parking lot located in front of the marina and relocate it to a higher elevation to the eastern side of the former café (yellow building). 

In doing so, the town will restore a salt marsh at the top of bank and a coastal buffer in the former parking area and create a more resilient shoreline that is tolerant to coastal flooding. By removing the asphalt along the edge of the river, the amount of untreated stormwater runoff flowing directly into Narrow River will be reduced. 

Public access will be provided to the shoreline and interpretive signage will educate the public about the Town’s coastal adaptation efforts. 

The parking facility in the rear should handle most of the displaced parking although a small parking area adjacent to the cottages may be added to offset their lost spaces.

Construction will be completed this year (2023) although some landscaping and signage may carry over to next season.