[1] In 1935, when he was fifteen years old, Betts began taking summer classes at the Art Students League where he studied with George Bridgman, among others.
[2] He obtained a degree in art history from Yale University in 1942 and enlisted in the United States Army that same year.
[7][8] Beginning in 1973 he taught the "Master Class for Advanced Watercolorists" at Rangemark, the studio founded by Barse Miller near Birch Harbor, Maine.
[4][5][11][12] Betts wrote that he had a "split personality" in that his realistic watercolors were thoroughly planned out in advance whereas his abstract acrylics were developed intuitively with no preconceived idea as to what the final result would be.
[14] Over the course of his life Betts worked in a number of different media including oil, casein, lacquer, gouache, watercolor, and acrylic.