Here I am in Alien Territory

Hi, whoever you are!

All I really want to do is show people my paintings, because, like all artists, I long to share what I see with my eyes and paint with my heart. I am a fine art painter of landscapes, people, still lifes, and a few abstracts. I guess you can call me a contemporary realist. I am infatuated with what I see. My strengths are in my use of color and composition, but I think I have some surprising takes on content.

I am a second career artist. When I came back to art, I started by doing drawings and working in oil, but now I work in acrylic on stretched canvas with painted sides. Some of my work is framed. After many years of college-teaching, doing research, writing, some of which is about health care (yeah), I retired and came back to my first love, painting, and I never look back.

When I came back I was moved to paint affirmations of life and a celebration of beauty (See Misty Light); but recently I have also painted beauty contrasted with the "terrible" in the real world of our time. I juxtapose images of the Iraqi war, and Afghanistan with serene and beautiful scenes of American life. Lately I have been working with arresting images from public photos (See In Afghanistan). I hope that people will connect with what is going on "In The World." I also express my joy in life in my landscapes, people, and still lifes; I only paint what I love to see.

So here I am in a blog. And you can see all my work at http://www.zibbet.com/Egilpatr