The encaustic paintings of Betsy Eby (born 1967) are contemporary examples of a tradition of painting descended from Romanticism, a tradition that insists that a work of art is both an outward expression and an inner exploration. "My paintings are inspired by patterns found in nature--whirling leaves, buzzing insect wings, birds in migratory flight--all combined in gestural rhythms, like the classical music that I practice," she states, citing among her predecessors painters such as Cy Twombly, Joan Mitchell, Petah Coyne, Brice Marden, Anselm Kiefer and Corot. Her passionate insistence that emotion can be the beginning and the end of a work of art places her work firmly within the romantic, but also in opposition to the market-driven, media-conscious art of our time. This monograph accompanies Eby's traveling museum exhibition Painting with Fire.