MIXED MEDIA | ENCAUSTIC

In recent years, I’ve worked more and more with mixed media, to incorporate my photography into my paintings. Originally, I just used wax as a way of integrating surfaces, but now encaustic (hot wax) has become my primary medium. It has lent itself remarkably well to my current themes and methods.

It began with the series called Dispossession Games, about the land issue in South Africa, and soon extended to cover other topics. The small blocks lend themselves to hanging in groups, so I usually do a whole series of works on each theme, whether it is social issues, portraits, the monochrome Streetwise and Shedding light series, or my new obsession with capturing the magic of the Karoo.

This medium has also worked well for a range of works on a very different format, with tall and thin boards, deep edges and wrap-around images, giving them a 3D sculptural quality.

KAROONESS

For many years, my husband Max and I have enjoyed travelling the backroads of Southern Africa at every opportunity. Almost invariably, we would find ourselves drawn in the direction of the Karoo, dreaming of retiring there one day. It etched itself deep into our souls. And then, last year, the dream became a reality.

Now that I am surrounded daily by this awesomeness, It is inevitable that I will try to express its impact on me in my work. I love that it is so intangible, so contradictory…. harsh yet incredibly welcoming, soft juicy succulents meet spindly dry bushes and thorn trees, baking heat replaces icy cold, miles of open plains and dead straight roads suddenly become jawdropping mountains and winding tracks. It is as indefineable as its boundaries on a map. Depicting all this “Karooness” is such a joy!