Beatriz Vidal was born in Argentina and attended the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of Cordoba University. In 1966 she traveled to New York, where she met the Hungarian born artist Ilonka Karasz, who had belonged to the Wiener Werkstatte movement and was a direct disciple of G.I.Gurdjief. That encounter changed her life. She studied painting and design with Karasz for several years, during which time her career as an illustrator began with designs for Unicef cards and record covers. Her illustrations also appeared in such magazines as Gourmet, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Woman's Day and The New Yorker.

In 1981 she illustrated the prize winning book "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain" by Verna Aardema. It became a PBS Reading Rainbow selection and remains a popular feature on that program to this day.

In 1988 she illustrated part of the PBS series "Joseph Campbell and the Power Of Myth" with Bill Moyers. These illustrations resulted in another book: "Buffalo Dance" (Little Brown & Co., 1993). Several books followed: "Rainbow Crow" (Knopf, 1989), also a Reading Rainbow selection on PBS, "The Legend of El Dorado" (Knopf, 1991), "A Promise to the Sun" (Little Brown & Co.,1992), "The Magic Bean Tree", (Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1997), "A Library for Juana" (Knopf, 2002) which won the prestigious Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award, "Federico and the Magi's Gift" (Knopf, 2004) which she wrote and illustrated and "A Gift of Gracias", by Julia Alvarez (Knopf, 2005). She illustrated part of "Children of God", a storybook Bible retold by Desmond Tutu (published by Lux Verbi, 2010). Other books are "Pine & the Winter Sparrow", by Alexis York Lumbard, 2015 and "Tillie Long Tale", by Bette Killion, 2016, both by Wisdom Tales.

From 1985 to 1987 she was invited to teach design and illustration on children's literature for Arab countries in Summer Seminars held in Cyprus and organized by the Beirut University College.
She has also taught at Hunter College, the New School for Social Research, and the 92nd Street Y.
In 2007 she was invited by the IBBY (International Board of Books for the Young) to give a workshop on illustration in Ulaambaatar, Mongolia, to enrich the quality of their children's literature. She travelled to China as well.

She has had many exhibitions of her paintings in the USA and abroad in both group and solo shows, among them The International Exhibition of Illustration for Children in Sarmede, Italy, The Society of Illustrators in New York, Teacher's College at Columbia University, The Museo Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernandez Blanco in Buenos Aires and The Consulate General of Argentina in New York. Her paintings and illustrations have been at Bloomsbury Auctions, New York.

At present she divides her time between Buenos Aires and New York City.