Photo Encaustics and Cold Wax — Carol Krauss Fine Art

Encaustics and Cold Wax- Artist's Statement

In a continual challenge of finding new ways to express creative freedom, I combine photos with encaustic painting and cold wax thus merging painterly realism with visceral abstract images.

Place has been a constant theme in all my creative journey. Often the place reference begins with a photo and the response in interpreted with the encaustics. Art-making in the time of coronavirus gave me the gift of more time in the studio listening and learning about music. I began to explore ways to respond to music and lyrics in combination with photo, encaustic, and cold wax. Those titled with a song or lyric pay homage to the inspiration and incorporate the response in the asemic writing in a color block, or cartouche.

While exploring encaustics, or painting with hot molten wax, I also discovered cold wax, which when combined with oil paints creates a soft, buttery painting experience of spreading color across a page. Cold wax builds up in layers and allows me to incorporate image and text, but it gives me more time to work and think about my intent, whereas encaustic is much more immediate. Both media result in an abstract image that still refers to a time or place in realism which was very real to me. My goal is to be able to paint what I remember so that others can also remember.