{"id":67726,"date":"2014-03-10T11:58:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T15:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=67726"},"modified":"2014-03-12T13:47:02","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T17:47:02","slug":"painting-with-fire-a-visit-with-betsy-eby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/10\/painting-with-fire-a-visit-with-betsy-eby\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting with Fire: A Visit with Betsy Eby"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"77.<\/a>

Sanguine II<\/i>, 2009.<\/p><\/div>\n

Encaustic means \u201cto burn.\u201d The ethereal quality of Betsy Eby\u2019s encaustic paintings belies the labor-intensive process of their making\u2014an ancient method involving heated wax, damar resin (the sap of a Southeast Asian pine), and pigment applied in translucent veils with brushes and knives. Using a blowtorch, she liquefies the wax and fuses the layers with fire.<\/i><\/p>\n

Eby\u2019s solo show, \u201cPainting with Fire<\/a>,\u201d is now at the Morris Museum in Augusta, Georgia. Eby is also a classical pianist, and many of her works are titled for musical pieces; her delicate compositions often seem to possess fluttering rhythms reminiscent of piano music. Eby is steeped in the Romantic era\u2019s exploration of the interplay of senses. <\/i>In a new book, <\/i>Betsy Eby<\/a>, art historian David Houston contributes an essay about synesthesia in her work, exploring the connections between sound and image. He mentions Baudelaire\u2019s idea of correspondence, \u201canchored in the belief that sensory experiences can correspond to common emotions.\u201d <\/i>One of the surprising benefits to viewing Eby\u2019s work in person is the engagement of another sense\u2014smell\u2014in the presence of natural beeswax. Drawing from poets and philosophers, composers and visual artists, her paintings resonate as much with history as they do modernity.<\/i><\/p>\n

I recently spoke with Eby from her studio in Columbus, Georgia, where she lives <\/i>with her husband, the Realist painter Bo Bartlett, in his childhood home<\/i>. (The Morris Museum is also hosting a concurrent show of Bartlett\u2019s work, \u201cPaintings from Home.\u201d)<\/i> <\/p>\n

\"Betsy<\/a><\/p>\n

I go back and forth between hot wax and cold wax, pouring, and vertical and horizontal application. I\u2019m less interested in the formulaic rigors. In \u201cpure\u201d encaustic painting, you have these little tins that hold melted wax in different colors. There\u2019s a greater methodical process. I\u2019m more attracted to going back and forth between hot and cold wax, because it allows me to have a more intuitive approach to mixing color, and application. I want to really push the luminosity and get my gestures quite thin at times.<\/p>\n

You can layer and layer and layer wax, so you\u2019re suggesting the layers beyond. I do that through tonal variations, just like anybody else who gets their underpainting down, but the underpainting is always a consideration of what I want to sacrifice and push back, to give the illusion of receding space.<\/p>\n