Rolling In Painting

"I don't just use paint brushes; I use blow torches, irons and a heat gun to push colors around and form movement. ​My palette is filled with soup cans and tins that rest on a heated griddle; I have sticks, picks, knives & scrapers to mold the wax and carve detail. This is the magic of working with encaustic! Often referred to as very sensual and luminescent, encaustic paintings can have a certain glow about them as light dances between each layer. I create my encaustic medium by mixing beeswax with damar crystals which act as a hardener. Many of my colors are custom created mixtures of dry pigments to which I add to the clear medium. And each layer of wax must be fused together with the previous layer by heat. Details can be captured in time as layers of wax are melted, waiting to be scraped away to reveal new patterns that are hidden beneath. I can find inspiration in everything and I’m continuously drawn to organic repetition. Whether that's a pattern found in a far off field, a rock, or tree limbs stretching outwards. Everything within its own right, can be something worth taking a closer look at. When people look at my paintings, my wish is for their eyes to wander, to touch the cool wax and follow the lines and details that they can’t see from afar. ______________________________________ Angie Gillespie is an encaustic artist who grew up and still resides in Eastern South Dakota. Although she's painted in acrylics for decades, the transition to encaustic is relatively new. After taking a five year break in painting, she stood at the sidelines eager to jump back in with new ideas and full of inspiration. She took that leap with encaustic and has never looked back. "It's been a journey to get to this point, it's been hard and sometimes full of angst, but I've finally arrived to where I am absolutely suppose to be.... painting with wax!" Her work can be found in both private and corporate collections around the world.