- Title:
- A Sense of Place
- Medium:
- Encaustic and ink on board
- Size:
- 60 x 180cm
- Date:
- 2011
- Price:
- $5,250
- Sold:
- No
Amy Melchior
"I am not going to look for the reason why certain beings have a pressing need to paint" Amy Melchior
[read more]Forms from ocean and land create starting points for Amy Melchior's strikingly beautiful compositions. The ancient process encaustic painting (combining beeswax, pigment and heat) allows for layering of vivid colour. There is an organic quality captured through this traditional process of making. Melchior describes how each layer (consisting of raw beeswax mixed with damar resin, then strained into small tins, where coloured pigment is added) is painted on and warmed with a heat gun, making the surface liquid, so she can "...bring images through from the layers beneath." The effect is luminous and the natural scent of beeswax is a feature of the work.
Encaustic painting was developed over 2,500 years ago. The ancient Greeks utilised this technique on the hulls of boats, the Egyptians for masks. Artists such as Jasper Johns have continued to explore this ancient process as a medium for painting.
Melchior’s most recent paintings explore the “global plight of the humble bee” with particular interest in the effect of colony collapse syndrome. The works are utopian in their approach, presenting pollen and seed pods in a place where “...wild hives drip with waxy honey”.
