Peg Bachenheimer
Carrboro, NC - United States
Peg Bachenheimer - Fine Artist
Member Since: 12/17/2008
My process involves layers, discovery, and a love of color and texture. I start with an idea, usually about my connection to and feelings about the natural world, the passage of time and our human experience. Since I don’t know what will emerge as I paint and I create many layers, I see painting as an act of faith and determination. Some of my paintings are about experiences or places remembered, others are abstract. I want my paintings to convey a rich visual and tactile experience connected to feelings evoked by the relationships and layers of my life. I work by building up layers and scraping back whether using acrylic, oil or encaustic paints. I consider myself a painter working in layers whatever the medium I use.
In encaustic work, I use beeswax, resin, pigment, paper and oil paints. I build up and scrape back to create something, and then watch as it disappears or becomes something else when heat is applied or the wax is scraped away. I collage paper and use heated tools to create interesting surfaces and textures.
In my latest work, I have been thinking about the places where things meet and merge or change and about what lies below the surface. This could be where sky meets earth, where water meets rock and sand or where past time meets the present as it does in scars and old walls. Layers of experience and layers of natural forms and processes seem connected. I’m interested in what might lie beneath the surface and between the layers, in where the material world and spiritual world meet.
How to care for an encaustic painting:
An encaustic painting is durable and archival; the colors remain vivid and the wax makes it waterproof. There are encaustic paintings from Greco-Roman Egypt that have survived for 2,000 years in good condition. Encaustic paintings, like all fine art, need some attention. The wax will melt at 150 degrees so storage in a hot car trunk is not an option. Wax will crack if frozen. So, an encaustic painting needs to be kept between 35 and 120 degrees. Wax develops a bloom, so when the surface becomes somewhat cloudy, a soft cloth can be used to buff the surface to a shine. The artist can easily repair any scratches or accidental minor
damage.
