Peg Bachenheimer: New Work in Encaustic
September 20-November 1, 2008

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I love the process of making a painting: building up and moving down through layers of texture and color until a feeling or experience is expressed. Some of my paintings are about places remembered and re-imagined, others are abstract. I want my paintings to convey a rich, vibrantly colored, visual and tactile experience connected to feelings evoked by the mystery and beauty of life and the passage of time. My process involves discovery: I don’t know all of what will emerge as I paint, and so, I see painting as an act of faith.

Lately, I’ve been working in the encaustic medium in which beeswax, resin, and pigment are heated to 200 degrees and then applied to a wood panel. Each layer of wax is fused with the heat of a propane torch or heat gun, binding it to the previous layer. It’s possible to build up many layers of wax, oil paint, paper and other collage materials and also to scrape back and incise the surface. You can create something and then watch as it changes or disappears when heat is applied. Colors, shapes, and lines from previous layers reappear when wax is scraped away, so the history of the piece can be rediscovered. This ancient and durable medium has a mystery, luminosity and organic quality that give the final pieces a spiritual feeling. I discover new things about encaustic painting every day; it’s an exciting, unpredictable and beautiful medium.

In this new work I have been exploring and experimenting with layers and the ability to see what came before or some fragment of it. This includes memories as well as the physical ability to see through the layers of wax. Just as memories influence the present and are part of it, the image, color and line in the previous layers are part of the surface you look at.

ABOUT PEG BACHENHEIMER

I grew up in Seattle and Cleveland where my father was the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Our family was immersed in art. One of my fondest memories was the Saturday morning art class at the museum.
I graduated from Smith College and Bank Street College of Education in New York City. I taught young children in public schools for many years. The creative process experienced in teaching and in painting is similar for me. I learn how to paint and about the feelings connected with each painting by experimenting with what feels and looks right and then deciding, responding and reevaluating. In the same way, I learned about teaching individual children.

I’ve been painting since 1998, when I began to take classes at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. I then went to Penland School of Craft to study and realized that I wanted to dedicate a large part of my life to painting. I now paint full time at my studio and home in Carrboro. I live with my husband, Steve, and have four grown children and stepchildren: Aaron and Celia Gray, Aaron and Rachel Bachenheimer.