Judy Edwards

I was born an artist although many distractions came my way before I settled into it. My studies started in Honolulu in 1979, then to Newport, R.I. in the mid 80’s, Monhegan Island, Maine, in the 90’s and Florida, in 2001.  I began drawing, which led to pastels, then oils and a Round The World plein aire painting trip in 1997-98 with my 13 year old daughter.

 I first saw encaustics in Egypt and was amazed at the brilliance of the colors that were created over 2000 years ago. Quite by accident, I discovered them myself in 2006 and I’ve been having fun ever since.

Encaustic paints are simply beeswax, resin and pigment.  Layers are fused together with hot air guns or torches.  They can be molded, sculpted, textured, and combined with collage materials. Encaustics can be polished to a high gloss for a luminous effect. They are exciting, brilliant, engaging, challenging, very interesting, yet humbling. 

 My artistic heroes are Arthur Dove, Milton Avery, Wolf Kahn, and Marsden Hartley…My challenge is to create unique images that are pleasant and intriguing.  If it fills a spot on the wall in a good way, then I’m happy.