Fusion: Encaustic Works
February 3 – February 28, 2019
Higgins Gallery
West Barnstable, MA
Featuring: Lola Baltzell, Jeanne Borofsky, Debra Claffey, Camille Davidson, Angel Dean, Pamela Dorris DeJong, Heather Douglas, Ken Eason, Helene Farrar, Dona Mara Friedman, Jeanne M Griffin, Donna Hamil-Talman, Kay Hartung, Sue Katz, Otty Merril, Susan J Paladino, Stephanie Roberts-Camello, Ruth Sack, Sarah Springer, Marina Thompson, Willa Vennema, Catherine M Weber, Lelia Stokes Weinstein, Charyl Weissbach, Nancy Spears Whitcomb
Fusion: Encautic Works: features a select group of artists from New England Wax (a regional association of artists who work in encaustic) as well as a few invited guests that have been using the ancient medium of encaustic as their primary form of expression.
Encaustic, meaning “to burn in” in Greek, is an exciting art medium with a rich history. It is a combination of beeswax, tree resin, and pigment that is applied with a brush while molten with each subsequent layer being fused to the next using a heat gun or torch. Examples of its use range from Egypt’s Fayum paintings at the beginning of the first millennium with a revival in the medium from Jasper Johns’ who used encaustic in his well known American Flag and Target paintings.
The range of work in this show encompasses the translucent layering and sculptural qualities that no other medium has. These exhibiting artists from the New England area are using incising, embedding and relief techniques to give the audience a full visual flavor of what can be done with encaustic wax.
These contemporary artists have pushed their content and use of material far beyond its ancient beginnings which date back to the 5th century BC.