Lately I have been drawn to local artist Andrea Benson. I met Andrea at an IEA meeting. IEA is a group of encaustic artists who get together monthly to talk about hot wax! Andreas work is feminine, yet strong. She uses papers that she makes to create patterns in her figures. Her work is figurative, which I t
end to be drawn to because I feel like it's not something I do well. I would like to do it well but struggle. Andrea has a thing about hands. They are so expressive. Perhaps the way to tackle the figure is to pick a part of the figure that I want to focus on, like Andrea's hands. I appreciate the simplicity of her work. I've found that with encaustic if you overwork the media it tends to be not as cooperative.
Two weekends from now I will be attending a workshop on encaustic painting taught by Portland artist Elise Wagner. Very exciting. http://www.elisewagner.com/ She is represented by Butters Gallery and I had the privledge of seeing her show recently. Elise has recently been working out her facination with how science and art collide. The atmosphere she creates in her work is fantastic, some of these are massive. I really want to know how to paint big with encaustic. I feel confined by the 12" x 12" substrates. Although you can't see it here many of her works are almost glowing. She has found a way to honor the luminosity of encaustic and still 'paint.' She has or seems to have complete control over the media. How does she create those loopy lines? They look encised and filled, then scraped. What a long process! I would love to get in her head and find out what she knows about encaustic. Tricks of the trade.
