Marcia Crumley

I create joyful, layered landscapes in encaustic and mixed media. In these anxious times, it’s important to seek out and celebrate moments of joy. My paintings celebrate the beauty of the natural world and capture the delight and wonder found in simple, often unexpected, places.

My painting process is defined by layering, with each piece containing up to 15-20 strata of pigmented wax. With each pass, I’m not just applying more wax paint, but intuitively responding to what is already on the surface and adding fresh thoughts and observations. I also incise and scrape away wax, revealing underlying colors and textures. During the final stages of a painting, I often rub oil paint into the marks I have made, to create even more visual interest. The highly-textured surfaces of these encaustic paintings invite viewers to spend more time with them. I like the artist’s hand to be visible in my work, and the longer you spend looking at these paintings, the more you see – subtle gestures, hidden textures, and even “mistakes” that I’ve decided to leave in the work.

My paintings have been featured in a variety of publications including The Boston Globe, Cultural Adventures 2021, The American Scholar, Tourist & Town, and Art New England...

I studied painting at Massachusetts College of Art and the The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I have had numerous solo exhibitions at art galleries across New England. My most recent solo exhibition, Finding Joy, was held at the Blue Door Gallery in York, Maine in late 2025. I will have an exhibition at Edgewater Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont in late 2026.

Solo or duo exhibitions include:
• Finding Joy, Blue Door Gallery, York, ME, Sept-Nov 2025
• Endless Summer, Candita Clayton Gallery, New London, NH, July/August 2023 (duo)
• Nature Redux, ConcordArt, Concord, MA, June-July 2021 (duo)
• Visions of Maine, The Francis Hotel, Portland, ME, October-December 2019
• Memory and Imagination, Landau Gallery, Belmont MA, February-March 2019
• Sacred Spaces, Acton Public Library, Acton, MA, November-December 2018
• Follow the Light, Lexington Wealth Management, Lexington, MA, May-June 2018
• Seasonal Landscapes, Winchester Public Library, Winchester, MA, April 2018
• Colorscapes: Recent Landscapes, StoveFactory Gallery, Charlestown, MA, April 2016