| Betsy Eby | |
|---|---|
Betsy Eby |
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| Birth name | Elizabeth Kerry Eby |
| Born | April 3, 1967 Seaside, Oregon, US |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Encaustic Painting |
| Training | University of Oregon, B.A. Art History |
| Influenced by | Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Antoni Tàpies, Brice Marden, Mark Tobey, Joan Mitchell |
| Awards |
2001 Artists Trust Gap Grant, Encaustic 99 Exhibition, Jurred by Judith Pfaff. Sponsor's Award. |
Betsy Eby (b. April 3, 1967 in Seaside, Oregon) is an American encaustic painter currently residing on Vashon Island in Washington State.
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Betsy Eby was born on April 3, 1967 in the small coastal town of Seaside, Oregon.[1] She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Art History[2] at the University of Oregon, with an emphasis in ancient Greek, Roman and Asian antiquities. During Betsy's internship at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, her aesthetic was influenced by Asian Landscape painting as well as the work of Northwest Masters which she catalogued. After graduation, she lived briefly in Tokyo and was deeply influenced by Japanese history and culture.[3] She has practiced classical piano since the age of five.[4]
Betsy Eby currently lives on an island off the coast of Maine in summer, and on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound in Washington through the winter.[5] She is married to artist Bo Bartlett.
Rhythm, balance, lyricism and tone in Betsy Eby’s paintings are influenced by her lifelong devotion to music.[6] Her paintings are informed by the natural world, drawing on forms found on both microscopic and macroscopic scales. Her calligraphic compositions draw on the movement of living things and visual forms echoed throughout nature.[7] Her works resonate with the experience of observing natural phenomena, such as the patterns created by a flock of birds taking flight, the substance of interplanetary nebula, and the whorls of sea grass found in a tide pool. Her subject matter, composition, color and surface luminosity are informed by the wet coastal climate and ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest.[8][9] Her works utilize abstraction and elemental reduction to portray essence and movement, rather than relying solely on observation or pure abstraction.[10]
Betsy Eby works in encaustic, a medium that dates back to the 4th Century BC and was written about in the works of Roman scholar Pliny the Elder.[11] Her paintings are created of pigmented beeswax, in a complex process of layering and torching, with a variety of methods in paint application. She balances compositional concerns with the material properties of the beeswax itself in an organic process of creation.[12] She works within the context of the physical dimension of the wax and the way the it obfuscates color, all the while building to a finished surface with a sculptural surface which glistens like poured resin.[13] Her work can be found in private collections, public collections, and galleries throughout the United States.