I am an encaustic landscape artist who began my artistic journey as a plein air painter. I have taken a number of oil painting courses at the Ottawa School of Art but am self taught with the Encaustic medium.
For many years, I painted on location using oils. Since discovering Encaustics, although the constraints of the medium makes plein air painting difficult, I remain compelled to explore ways of portraying the natural world. . My style is semi abstract with emphasis on colour, light and texture. My works are inspired by views from around the Ottawa area as well as during my travels.
Encaustics are made with beeswax, damar resin with pigments added for colour. The paintings are made up of many layers of beeswax fused together with a torch. Paint is sometimes applied mindfully by paintbrush but also is energetically dribbled and splashed over the surface. Cycles of scraping, re-melting and re-painting yields a somewhat impressionistic sometimes random and haphazard look. As in the natural world, this process of addition and removal mimicks nature’s cycles of rot and regeneration.
I show my work regularly at the Kanata Civic Art Gallery, Arteast at the Shenkman Arts Centre and the Art Lending Ottawa. I have an upcoming solo exhibition at MIFO in Orleans. Past solo shows include the Trinity Gallery in the Shenkman Arts Centre.