Member Since: August 2008 Media Specialties: Painting; City: Vilas State: North Carolina County: Watauga County, NC Bio: I discovered, smelled and became enamored with encaustic painting at an exhibit in ArtSpace in Raleigh, NC in 2006. I was so intrigued by the little wood blocks in the gallery that I had to find out more. I searched the painter’s name online and learned the word encaustic then began the hunt for someone to teach me. I took a course at an artist’s home in Chapel Hill, Lynn Bregman Blass, and have been painting with this medium ever since. Encaustic, from the ancient Greek word enkaustikos, means “to heat” or “to burn.” Nearly 3,000 years ago Greek shipbuilders used beeswax to caulk the joints and waterproof the hulls of their vessels and later began to add pigment to the wax as noted by Homer in 800 B.C. when he saw “painted warships sailing into Troy.” The medium consists of beeswax, resin and dry pigment that when combined become paint. Encaustic painting uses heat at every stage of the process, a process that requires the painter to work quickly. I apply the heated paint to the canvas then rhythmically build layers, reheating them as I progress to fuse one layer of paint to the one below it. My inherent tendency to plan and organize leads me to sketch and make notes before I begin to paint so I will know how much heat to apply or how far to carve, scribe or scrape into the paint to reach a certain color. It’s the unpredictability, the creative challenge, of this medium combined with the aroma, the luminosity of the colors and the excavation that drive my passion to experience more. I'm excited and honored to be a member of the YVCG! Mobile: (919)357-2072 This Member's Galleries: This bio page has been viewed 979 times.
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