Eliza Midgett’s paintings are a celebration of color, joy, and imagination—a surreal escape into vibrant, whimsical worlds. Specializing in acrylics on canvas, she often incorporates humorous black & white drawings and collaged cut paper into her paintings to create her signature “Unconventional Colorscapes.” Her work transforms the beach environment she grew up in—into the world she wants it to be. Not traditionally abstract, she distorts the environment with abstracted shapes, balancing the real with the impossible. Her playful paintings are carefully constructed compositions of abstracted organic shapes, outlined with dark contour lines that vary in thickness and filled with saturated tertiary colors.
Eliza’s creative process is as unique as her art. She flips her canvases upside down to focus on the composition, letting strong shapes guide her. Color, the “icing,” is intuitive yet studied, with Eliza having explored its psychological, emotional, and design impacts in depth.
“Color has always been a part of my life. As a child I performed color dances—music can influence what colors I paint. Colors are like people in my paintings, I have to understand who can sit next to each other.”
Eliza earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from James Madison University and studied art history in London. After working as a professional artist and graphic designer, she took time to raise her two sons—now a geologist and an aerospace engineer. Eliza then spent a decade teaching art before returning to full-time painting.
View Eliza Midgett’s collection at the Stravitz Gallery.