Artists friends and students

During the course of more than 50 years in Algeria, Bettina Heinen-Ayech got to meet many artists. She always supported them and opened her atelier in Guelma to the numerous young artists in the region. Some were regular visitors and received tuition, others came for advice and encouragement.

Artist Hocine Himeur, along with painters Fnides, Boukhatem, Khaled-Khodja and Benabda, regularly visited the artist’s atelier. She also had a close relationship with artists Veneta Smith and Marie-Therese Bicha. Bettina regularly attended artist meetings and salons in Algeria.

The painter Ernst Egon Theis is one of the Solingen students of the painter Bettina Heinen-Ayech. A watercolourist, he found his motifs in the Bergisches Land and on his many travels. His works were intended to give people pleasure and were created in nature. He was a painter of local history and landscapes, depicting what was happening with mostly fine and very accurate brushstrokes. He said about his paintings: "Painting is for me an expression of joy". In his late work he switched to abstraction.