Encaustic Artist and Beekeeper, Suzanna Bates works out of her Art Room in her home on Vancouver Island. Surrounded by vast skies, mountains and ocean, there is no shortage of inspiration for her bees wax paintings.
Encaustic is a wonderful medium and I have fallen in love with the flexible, forgiving nature of melted wax! Creating art has always been a part of my life, and I have always had a space in which I can happily experiment and mess with colour and medium. I believe that all the years of playing with and making art have provided me with the building blocks of creating the Encaustic work that I do today. Art is always an evolutionary process and I love being challenged to open the next door!
I have always had a passion for mixed media collage and previously I've used paper, fabric, fibre and paint to create many layers on my canvas. I love the layered look of a piece of art, the texture it provides and the story it tells. I guess life itself is much like that, - there are so many layers to it, some beautiful, some less attractive, some visible, some hidden, - yet they all contribute to the story as a whole and the picture itself. Now with wax and pigment I can create the same kind of layers, only this time I can achieve depth and translucency. One huge bonus with this medium is the glorious smell of bees wax, honey and incense from the resin in my Art Room!
Process: I like to work on Birch wood boards of various sizes for my Encaustic Paintings. Sometimes I coat the board with a good layer of plaster which I might either sand down to a smooth surface or create some texture in it while the plaster is still wet. I then start layering on the melted wax, either untinted or mixed with oil or dry pigment. Each layer of wax is fused with the layer beneath it. My favourite tool for this part is my propane torch which can provide just the right amount of flame and heat to fuse the wax as I want it. This part needs a steady hand, - too much flame will simply melt the wax. I sometimes add elements of collage into my Encaustic Paintings. Things like tissue, fabric, paper and metal foil might make their way into various layers of the painting. I particularly enjoy working with photographs (all original, taken by me) and I use a method of photo transfer to get the image onto one of the layers of wax. Using black-and-white or colour photographs I like to rework some of the contrast to play into the mood of the painting. I may paint encaustic medium onto some of the layers, create texture, or rub very thin layers of oil paint onto them. Sometimes I inscribe into a layer with different tools to create further texture and depth. Some layers are scraped away to create more smoothness, and other times I deliberately use bubbles and texture for more dimension. Each Encaustic Painting will contain between 8 and 10 layers of wax, - some have many more, depending on the type of painting I am doing. Encaustic Painting requires patience, discipline and technique but it is also a wonderful way to explore being reckless, impulsive and free in my art.
I have always had a passion for mixed media collage and previously I've used paper, fabric, fibre and paint to create many layers on my canvas. I love the layered look of a piece of art, the texture it provides and the story it tells. I guess life itself is much like that, - there are so many layers to it, some beautiful, some less attractive, some visible, some hidden, - yet they all contribute to the story as a whole and the picture itself. Now with wax and pigment I can create the same kind of layers, only this time I can achieve depth and translucency. One huge bonus with this medium is the glorious smell of bees wax, honey and incense from the resin in my Art Room!
Process: I like to work on Birch wood boards of various sizes for my Encaustic Paintings. Sometimes I coat the board with a good layer of plaster which I might either sand down to a smooth surface or create some texture in it while the plaster is still wet. I then start layering on the melted wax, either untinted or mixed with oil or dry pigment. Each layer of wax is fused with the layer beneath it. My favourite tool for this part is my propane torch which can provide just the right amount of flame and heat to fuse the wax as I want it. This part needs a steady hand, - too much flame will simply melt the wax. I sometimes add elements of collage into my Encaustic Paintings. Things like tissue, fabric, paper and metal foil might make their way into various layers of the painting. I particularly enjoy working with photographs (all original, taken by me) and I use a method of photo transfer to get the image onto one of the layers of wax. Using black-and-white or colour photographs I like to rework some of the contrast to play into the mood of the painting. I may paint encaustic medium onto some of the layers, create texture, or rub very thin layers of oil paint onto them. Sometimes I inscribe into a layer with different tools to create further texture and depth. Some layers are scraped away to create more smoothness, and other times I deliberately use bubbles and texture for more dimension. Each Encaustic Painting will contain between 8 and 10 layers of wax, - some have many more, depending on the type of painting I am doing. Encaustic Painting requires patience, discipline and technique but it is also a wonderful way to explore being reckless, impulsive and free in my art.
