ARTIST STATEMENT

My love of place and travel is at the heart of my artistic practice. I am moved by nature, unfamiliar landscapes, and encounters with people and places that awaken something in me—an energy, an emotion, a sensation I carry back with me.

I do not paint the places I visit. I paint what they leave inside me.

I gather experiences, not images. A journey across the world, a walk close to home, a conversation, an encounter, or simply an energy I wake up with one morning can become the starting point for a painting. A place may become the title—a marker of where the experience began—but the painting comes later.

When I enter the studio, I return to the present moment. I paint quickly and intuitively, before the sensation has time to disappear. Colour is my primary instrument—the means through which experience becomes vibration.

I work with encaustic, combining beeswax, damar resin and dry pigments on wood. Heat transforms the material as I work, melting and merging layers and allowing unexpected forms to emerge.

My process moves between intention and surrender.

Sometimes I pour the wax vertically. For one moment, it is entirely mine—the colour I choose, the heat I create, the gesture I make. Then I let it fall. Gravity takes it from there. I watch, respond and accept what it becomes.

At other times, I work flat, applying layers of wax and bringing a torch to the surface. The heat melts and merges the colours into forms I did not plan and cannot completely control. Fire becomes part of the creative process.

In both approaches, I make the first gesture and then listen to what happens. Another layer. Another movement. Another response.

The painting gradually takes form through this exchange between what I intend and what I am willing to let happen.

One percent intention. Ninety-nine percent surrender.

For me, painting is an act of presence and trust.

ARTIST TECHNIQUE

Encaustic Painting

Encaustic is an ancient painting technique in which beeswax, natural resin and pigments are transformed through heat. With roots reaching back more than two thousand years, the medium is remarkable for its luminosity, depth and extraordinary tactile quality.

In my studio, I prepare my encaustic medium from beeswax, damar resin and finely ground pigments. Heated together, these simple natural materials become a rich, molten paint with an extraordinary depth of colour.

On my heated palette, the wax remains liquid. I apply it with brushes or allow it to flow freely across wild cherry wood. Each layer is fused with the flame of a blowtorch, allowing colours to melt, merge and transform.

The word encaustic comes from the Greek enkaiein, meaning “to burn in.” Fire is therefore more than a tool in my process—it becomes part of the creation itself.

I begin with an intention: a colour, a gesture, a movement. Then heat, gravity and the nature of the wax begin to participate.

One percent intention. Ninety-nine percent surrender.

The Living Surface of Wax

Encaustic has a presence unlike any other painting medium. It can be translucent or opaque, smooth or highly textured. It can be polished, carved, scraped, layered or sculpted. As the wax cools, it hardens; with heat, it becomes fluid again.

Layer upon layer creates a sense of depth that seems to hold light within the surface. A gentle buffing can reveal a beautiful natural luster and intensify the richness of the pigments.

Once cured, the wax itself forms the finished surface of the painting. No glass is needed, allowing the viewer to experience the colour, texture and physical presence of the work directly.

There is something elemental about the process: wax, pigment, wood and fire.

Each has its own nature. My role is not to control them completely, but to bring them together, respond to what happens, and know when the painting has found its form.

Timeless. Natural. Enduring.

To collect an encaustic painting is to encounter both an ancient medium and a contemporary work—one created through heat, movement, colour and surrender.

Wax. Pigment. Wood. Fire.