Wax: Hot & Cold

Painting Our Stories

Anne Bernard, Time to Go (2023), cold wax and oil on cradled board, 12” x 12”

March 23 - May 6, 2023

About The Show

Prior to paper, writing was mark making on animal skin or stone. Akin to the process of working with molten wax and pigment, erasing a mark was achieved by scraping away. As layers were removed, a prior history was revealed. Layers and depth created structure, and meaning was deepened through the reveal of recurring themes, concerns, and patterns.

Painting Our Stories is a new collection of work building upon ancient wisdom and alchemy. We are a group of eight artists with diverse backgrounds drawn to wax for its luscious qualities of luminosity, depth and mystery. We apply, fuse, blend, dig, build, and glaze our wax to illuminate our life chapters with authenticity, confidence and abstraction.

As artists, we remain dedicated to learning, developing and expanding our creative power. We have weathered life with grit and grace while remaining curious and open. With wax, we excavate the layers of our lives, discover the mysteries, invoke the luminosity, heal the wounds, and mark the joys, revealing or concealing what lies beneath. We are all women whose lives hold many stories, paths, lessons and wisdom.

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, is a form of painting that involves working with a molten mix of beeswax and damar resin on a heated palette to which colored pigments have been added. Most artists use pigmented wax—however; dried powdered pigments can also be used. Surfaces primarily are wooden substrates although canvas and other materials are sometimes used. After applying the molten wax to a panel, it is fused using a propane or butane torch, heat gun, or other methods of applying heat. Encaustic painting provides many possibilities for how materials are used; such as embedding objects or photographs, adding collage material or layering the paint and scraping into surface. The word encaustic originates from ancient Greek, which means, “burning in.” An element of heat is necessary for a painting to be called encaustic.

Cold Wax painting is an oil painting medium, which is a buttery soft paste, made of beeswax mixed with a small amount of solvent and resin. The cold wax paste is mixed with the oil paint or pigment sticks on a palette. Cold wax adds body, transparency and depth to the oil paint. Surfaces are primarily prepared wooden substrates or cold pressed paper suitable for oil painting.

In this show we use wax in a variety of ways ranging from painting on layers of wax with a variety of tools, printing encaustic monotypes, photography, pouring hot molten wax over a substrate and dipping objects into wax to create a sculptural element.



Featured Artists

Edith Beatty, Marcy Bergeron-Noa, Anne Bernard, Sandi Donnelly, Janet Hyland, Karen K. Kulberg, Mary McCann, Micki Whelan

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