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An Abstract Artist Living
Abroad Returns Home After decades as a successful graphic designer and marketing communications director in the mad-paced Southern California business landscape, I turned my attention to a new adventure and a new career. I moved to Central America and began to focus on fine art. Recognition and sales took off. Seeking a larger market, I spent years establishing myself on the international art stage in the beautiful, colorful, antique city of San Miguel de Allende -- Mexico's art colony and culture capital. 2020's Covid-19 Pandemic brought me back home to Orange County, California, where I now reside and paint in Irvine. Process, materiality and physicality is what speaks to me. I currently choose to work in both the cold wax/oil and the encaustic paint mediums. |
Cold WaxPellets of beeswax are mixed with natural solvents to create a "mayonnaise-like" consistency. This cold wax is then mixed by the artist with pigments to achieve a cake frosting-type of consistency. It's fun, sensual and joyous!
The cold wax/oil paint process allows for more time to to explore, change and complete my message. Because its drying time is longer, I am allowed the freedom to try new techniques, to develop new directions. |
EncausticEncaustic is hot beeswax melted with resin and color pigments to form the paint. I apply many layers of the hot, molten paint on a wood support, fusing each layer to the underlying one with a torch or heat gun. This produces a painting that can never fade, since the colors are permanently locked in the wax/resin. Encaustic is fluid, which allows my message to subtly change as I'm creating it. The luminosity of the medium allows for a painting with many layers, evoking many stories and inviting touch. Viewers are much more involved with a painting that can be touched as well as visually enjoying the sensual experience of encaustic. Both encaustic and cold wax mediums take me on elaborate, colorful journeys.
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