Elizabeth H. Heide

The work of Elizabeth H Heide, former Exhibition and Conservation Coordinator at the Peabody Essex Museum, has been exhibited at venues on Massachusetts’ North Shore and in Maine at Northeast Fine Art  and Design.  Following her museum career, Heide studied printmaking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and with printmakers Liz Shepherd and Dan Weldon.  Additional work in figure drawing with Amy Winn Derry and sculpture with Paul Bowen enhances her projects.

An avid birder and naturalist, Heide's work reflects her emotional and intellectual response to the world around her. "Living in Boston, surrounded by such a highly built environment, the nuanced changes in the ecosystem of the city are incredibly important to me.”  The subject matter of Heide's drawings, etchings and lithographs include linear and abstract bird images, botanical studies, and figurative works.   A digital camera with a large zoom lens has become an indispensable tool for the artist allowing detailed study of elusive birds.  The behaviors of feeding birds, natural patterns and images of decay are of particular interest. Many prints feature multiple plates and techniques ranging from hard and soft grounds to drypoint and photoetching.

"The quality of line ranging from quiet to energetic assists in the effort to capture a sense of movement, capturing a moment, not to freeze it, but to interpret it and commit to memory.  The works explore my connection to the natural world.  I enjoy moments of mystery and strive to hold one's attention with the question 'what's going on?"  I feel that an image is particularly successful when a viewer brings their own interpretation to an image."