Painting can be a risky business. Things can get unruly in the dialogue between paint and painter, and the challenge is to bring some kind of order out of chaos while the painting evolves. Often, I don’t have a specific image in mind when I begin a piece. The beginnings of inspiration may come from a natural shape, a nuance of color, an emotional impression. Discovering the enigmatic, mysterious nature of a form or feeling tickles my curiosity and reminds me to stay open to some intriguing surprises. Perception continually shifts what is seen.
I love working in this medium, and am fascinated by the process and focus of attention it requires. It’s a very old medium, dating back to the Egyptians, composed of hot liquid beeswax, damar resin, and oil paint or powdered pigments. After the encaustic is brushed onto the painting surface, it’s manipulated with a hand held heat source, then additionally textured once it’s cooled.
As a painting medium, encaustic is luscious and fluid and unpredictable, infinitely malleable, sometimes infuriatingly quirky and ultimately, wonderfully satisfying. Kind of like life. I’m continually making little adjustments as if I’m balancing on a moving ball. I have to be sensitive to the moments when it’s best to just stop and let the paint and wax move on its own, and when to gently intervene. This is an opportunity to practice the difference between sustained clear attention and stubborn tenacity. With the former, I gracefully step back, don’t try to push the river, and can make a vibrant and beautiful painting. With the latter, I end up with a muddy mess.
Because it’s not feasible to travel with all the paraphernalia necessary for encaustic, I’ve taken to working in water-based mediums while I’m away from my studio. I had some concern that after the textural variety of encaustic, there wouldn’t be enough substance for me to sink my teeth into using water-based mediums. However, I’ve found a satisfying process using watercolour, gouache and inks in nontraditional ways where I can produce paintings of variety and depth. I find it fascinating how colour palette, image and textural surface are influenced by difference in Place and medium.
