Opening reception:
Thursday, July 7 | 7:30 pm
I created an exhibit that focuses on the passion, purity and pain surrounding the concept of love.
Recently, a good friend of mine described her experience spending time with her mother during her last few weeks of life. Her comment “The time with my mom was just love, and nothing else” continues to resonate with me as one perception of love.
I explore and capture my experience with love through my art, and see what happens.
My desire to create art seems to come from a need to release and express feelings that I cannot find words for. It is like a form of journaling for me. Tapping into an inner energy, a feeling or force that simply wants to come out. It isn’t always pleasant, but it usually is. It is definitely a feeling of letting go and growth once a piece is finished. I am not always aware of what it is I need to release until the art is complete. Even then, there is often an after-processing where I continue to communicate with the art.
I find encaustic, painting with beeswax and oil pigment, a perfect medium for this conversation. It is responsive, dynamic, and flexible.
There is a specific technique in encaustic called accretion that I am very drawn to. It involves building up texture through layering of the wax, much like a landscape builds layers over time. The wax can also be scraped away which simulates, in nature, erosion; and in life, trauma and new beginnings.
I feel very fortunate to have this relationship with beeswax in my life, and am continually learning and growing with it.
I have participated in many oil painting and encaustic courses over the past couple of decades in the Guelph and Elora area. My studio is in the village of Elora Ontario. I have had works shown in various galleries, exhibits and studio tours in this area. I have taught many introductory and a few advanced courses in Encaustic and look forward to sharing this amazing journey with the Bancroft community this summer.