For the month of May, the Asheville Gallery of Art presents Waxing Artistic—Exploring Encaustic, a collection of works by Kate Colclaser. The exhibition runs through Saturday, May 31, with an opening reception from 5-7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2.
The influence of Appalachia is deeply ingrained in Colclaser’s art. “The mountains, farms, forests and wildlife all influence my work,” she says. “As a child, I lived with those things, and they sparked my curiosity—why things changed with the seasons and how plants and animals dealt with that.”
Through her encaustic medium, Colclaser does not simply replicate nature. “I don’t try to paint specifically what I see,” she says, “but I want to give an impression and express the mood of a place or season, whether it’s the lonely sparseness of a winter field as the birds head south or the vivid, lively color of a woodland in the fall.”
Part of Colclaser’s mission with this exhibit is to demystify the medium of encaustic. “Most people don’t know much about encaustic—how it’s done or how expressive and enduring it can be,” she says. This exhibit highlights encaustic’s potential for creating diverse works, from landscapes and abstracts to collages and portraits. By incorporating watercolor, photos, oil paints and pastels, Colclaser demonstrates how encaustic can be layered with other media to enhance both depth and expression…