Spring View from Balltown, 2017, oil, 27×34
The landscape of Iowa and more lately that of Northeast Iowa has been the focus of Fred Easker’s oil paintings for about twenty five years. The Cedar Rapids native has work included in museum, corporate, and private collections and is shown in galleries throughout the Midwest and has appeared in a number of publications. Easker was an Arts Midwest/National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and was featured as an Iowa Master by Iowa Public Television. He has shown work in three world embassies through the Arts in Embassies program. More recent commissions include paintings for the World Food Prize in Des Moines and United States Federal Court House in Cedar Rapids. His work has been influenced by the great American landscape painters of the late 19th century Hudson River School and fellow Cedar Rapidian, Grant Wood.