BETSY EBY
BETSY EBY YOU ARE THE SKY
700 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
You Are The Sky Artist Betsy Eby has spent the past year looking inward. Throughout 2020, Eby took isolation as an opportunity to focus. From her studio in Columbus, Georgia, the artist notes that she’s felt closer to her painting practice than she has in a long time. Unstructured creative time has allowed for Eby to improvise, move slowly, and rework her large-scale compositions. Eby’s encaustic paintings sit somewhere between landscapes, conceptual musical scores, and Abstract Expressionist explorations. Sometimes Eby’s references are literal: The vibrant greens and misty blues of Elysium, 2021, form something akin to a horizon line. However most of the time, Eby’s marks—made with knives smeared with pigmented cold and hot wax—hover just outside of representation’s reach. In works like Dragon Pearl, 2021, the artist’s swirling smoky strokes almost look as if they are moving together to form a clearer picture. The viewer is left watching the process of their coalescing or falling apart. Taking cues from the natural surroundings of her residences in Columbus and Wheaton Island, Maine—and the Pacific Northwest, where the artist grew up—Eby is influenced by the long history of artists finding solace and reflection through the act of walking. (She specifically mentions composer Johannes Brahms’s predilection for wandering the woods around nineteenth-century Vienna.) Her paintings mimic a sensation similar to ambling; for example, in Petalum, 2021, clusters of reds, pinks, and oranges lead viewers’ eyes left and then right again in a lilting motion.
And while Eby often sketches to consider shape, mass, contrast, and space, she doesn’t use those preparatory drawings as strict plans. Instead, she lets the act of layering wax on top of wax happen more organically in order to create visual depth. Through this process, Eby is able to capture and make permanent feelings or visual impressions that in nature, or in life, would be only temporary. A classically trained pianist, Eby often looks to the structure of music to inform her paintings. There is a kinship between the artist’s visual works and compositions by Erik Satie and Claude Debussy, who injected a feeling of looseness to challenge traditional structures of music. Eby is deeply inspired by the way that music can convey emotions without prompting listeners to ask what exactly it means. Eby’s paintings serve similarly as abstract guides through different emotional states, whether with the comparative sparseness of Quill, 2021, or the dark, moody forms in The Return, 2021. The artist’s current show at Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans takes its title from a meditation by Pema Chödrön: “You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.” Eby’s recent works in turn offer moments to consider one’s place within the world. The waxy ecru color that forms her paintings serves as a sort of ground against which to examine Eby’s varied compositions, and her short colorful marks seem to either peacefully drift across the field or turbulently bubble up to create the mood. Through her artworks, Eby shows us that sky and weather are part of the same whole, and that no matter the changing storms, what can remain constant is what we, as viewers, bring to them. Charlie Tatum
She Was Both Eros and Psyche 60 x 96 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Petalum
48 x 48 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
In Her Faint Evidence
70 x 55 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Her Broken Pearls Became the Milky Way 60 x 48 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Aurora
48 x 66 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
With Eyes the Color of Lake and Sky 48 x 66 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
The Return
55 x 70 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
She Stood in the Field of Higher Frequency 30 x 50 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Elysium
30 x 48 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
She Found Herself in the Moongarden 48 x 66 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Divining
48 x 66 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on canvas 2021
Dragon Pearl
64 x 64 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Quill
30 x 48 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Rondel Chinois
36 x 48 inches Hot wax, cold wax, oil, ink on panel 2021
Born: 1967 Seaside, OR Education 1990 University of Oregon. B.A. Art History Solo Exhibitions 2021 You Are The Sky, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2020 Mystics, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle WA Atlantic, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME Garden Riot, Winston Wachter New York, NY 2018 I AM OCEAN, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Bellwether, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2011 Arrangements, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA 2010 Scales and Measures, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY The Red Paintings, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID 2009 Abundance, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA 2008 New Paintings, Jean Efron Fine Art, Washington, DC Divine Unrest, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY 2007 As Above So Below, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA New Paintings, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2017 Beyond Measure, Winston Wachter, New York, NY Frequency, Cadogan Contemporary, London, UK
2006 New Paintings, David Floria Gallery, Aspen, CO
2015 Songs for the Delta, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, LA Painting With Fire, Ogden Museum. New Orleans, LA Southern Spirituals, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle WA
2005 Beyond the Tangle, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Rhythms of this Earthly Life, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2014 Painting With Fire, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME Painting With Fire, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
2004 New Paintings, Ameringer Yohe Gallery, Boca Raton, FL Strings of Happiness and Desire, Allene Lapides Gallery, Sante Fe, NM
2013 Painting With Fire, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA Chromatic Fantasies, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Night Music, Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY
2003 New Distillations, Winston Wächter Mayer, New York, NY New Distillations, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2012 Ayres and Fantasies, David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2002 New Works, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA New Works, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2001 Elemental Divide Series, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA New Works, Southwest Texas University, San Marco, TX Nocturnal Volume, Anne Reed Gallery, Sun Valley, ID Energy Equals Light and Mass, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, WA 2000 New Works, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Capturing Impermanence, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle WA 1999 Give Alms Here, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, WA 1998 Remembering Ceremony, Helios Gallery, Ashland, OR
Group Exhibitions 2021 7+7 Established and Emerging Artists of the Chatahoochee Valley, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA Twenty Fifth Anniversary, Winston Wachter, New York, NY From The Inside Out, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA View From Here, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME
2018 Peers & Influences, The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA 2017 New Year 2017, Cadogan Contemporary, London, UK Eloquent Flower XVI, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Under the Influence, Somerville Manning Gallery, Wilmington, DE 2016 Art in Embassies, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Linda Christensen | Betsy Eby, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Waterways, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, CT 2015 American Summer, Cadogan Contemporary, London, UK 180 Degrees, The Curator Gallery, New York, NY 2014 Valley Painters, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA Summer 2014, David Klein Gallery, Birmingham MI 2013 Painterly Gestures, Illges Gallery, Columbus, GA Summerstock, Quintenz Gallery, Aspen, CO Tonalism, Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2020 Summer Group Show, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA Betsy Eby, Chris Hayman, James Henderson, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2012 Petit Tableaux, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA State of Nature, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Marks and Conversations IV, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2019 Betsy Eby and Bo Bartlett, Ithan Substation, Villanova, PA Under the Influence, Somerville Manning Gallery, Wilmington, DE
2011 Flora, David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI Bird + Flowers, Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR Eloquent Flower XV, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Summer Select, David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2010 Mystical Shores, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE Marks and Conversations, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID 2009 Lasting Legacies: The First 75 Years, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR Summer Selections, Winston Wächter, Seattle, WA The Artist Eye, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID 2008 Art in Embassies, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Eby Bartlett, David Floria Gallery, Aspen, CO Anniversary Show Group Exhibition, Renee George Gallery, Charlotte, NC Summer in Chelsea 2008, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY 2007 New Art Northwest, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR 2006 Spirited Expressions, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Sliding Scale, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY Please do not touch, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY 2005 North by Northwest, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY Lucky Seven, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA 2004 Art in Embassies, Banjul, Gambia Expansion, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Four From The Northwest, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA The Seductive Surface, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM New York Contemporary in Greenwich, Greenwich, CT
2003 New Artists, Ameringer Yohe Gallery, Boca Rotan, FL Theoretically Botanical, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN Rotations, Winston Wächter Mayer, New York, NY Botanica, Winston Wächter Fine Art & Scherping West, Seattle, WA Retrospective Prospective, Anne Reed Gallery, Sun Valley, ID 2002 Betsy Eby and Jessica Brommer, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Abstraction, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Anniversary Show, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Retrospective Prospective, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID The Art of Encaustic, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Encaustic Now, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Small Paintings and Works on Paper, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 2001 Altered Landscapes, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID Aggregations, Gwenda Jay Addington Gallery, Chicago, IL Surface, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID Waxworks II, Gwenda Jay Addington Gallery, Chicago, IL 2000 Retrospective Prospective, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ In the Unlikely Event, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID 1999 Encaustic Works 99, Watermark Cargo Gallery, Kingston, NY Artwork for AIDS, Seattle Center Gallery, Seattle, WA American Cancer Society traveling exhibition, Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery: Seattle, WA, Chicago, IL, Louisville, KY, San Francisco, CA Introductions 99, Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle, WA
1998 Fete, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, WA Chiaroscuro, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, WA West Coast Women Artists, Helios Gallery, Ashland, OR Icons: Past, Present, Future, Helios Gallery, Ashland, OR
Selected Collections Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS Morris Musem, Augusta, GA Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA Jordan Schnitzer Museum, Eugene, OR Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA Ulrich Museum of Art Wichita, KS United States Embassy, Dubai, UAE
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
BETSY EBY YOU ARE THE SKY 1 May - 29 May 2021 Octavia Art Gallery | New Orleans 700 Magazine Street, Ste. 103 New Orleans, LA 70130 tel 504-309-4249 www.octaviaartgallery.com Images © 2021 Betsy Eby Studio All Rights Reserved Essay © 2021 Charlie Tatum Catalogue designed by Julianna Wells Front Cover Elysium (detail), 2021 Back Cover Elysium (detail), 2021