Karen Ross [American, 1972] creates vibrant and engaging abstract paintings using an ancient method of encaustic painting where molten filtered beeswax combined with resin and pigments are burned into wood substrates. An exhaustive list of techniques is employed in working with wax, including, but not limited to, incising, carving, burnishing, image transfers, and scraping. Her work is luminous and highly textured, allowing the viewer to contemplate meaning through many layers of wax that both reveal and hide previous layers. Combining mixed media with the wax, she finds the intense color, imagery, luminosity and exciting tactile impressions to be her most personal form of expression. It's a medium that's best viewed in person to grasp the depth and surface that no other medium can achieve.

Her most recent exhibitions include The Art Center Highland Park, Evanston Art Center, Laughlin Gallery, and A.I.R. Gallery. Her paintings have found a forever home in many private residences throughout the country. She has been featured in Sheridan Road Magazine, JUF News, Deerfield Neighbors Magazine, and The North Shore Weekend News.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Karen Ross (b. 1972) is an encaustic and mixed media artist living in Deerfield, Illinois. Encaustic painting involves a wax and resin medium that creates an exciting visual and tactile experience of texture and luminosity with a sensuous beeswax aroma.
Karen's ongoing experimentation with collage, image transfer and decoupage prepared her for working with the encaustic medium. Through exploration she has developed her signature techniques of layering, incising, image transferring and scraping to create further depth and texture. An exhaustive list of techniques are used in working with wax and she continues to learn and grow with each passing year of play and experimentation.
Pigment from oil paint is used to color the wax, providing a rich palette to work on her preferred substrate of wood. Karen's work ranges from vibrant to earthy and explores layered images and moods, often with words or text in which the viewer can find meaning. Her former career as a psychotherapist has influenced many of the ideas and thoughts that often carve a path for her process, particularly in some of what she calls her “word paintings” where thoughts and small bites of conversations find their way into a painting.
The work is luminous and highly textured, allowing the viewer to contemplate meaning through many layers of wax that both reveal and hide previous layers. Combining mixed media with the wax, she finds the intense color, imagery, luminosity and exciting tactile impressions to be her most personal form of expression. It's a medium that's best viewed in person to grasp the depth and surface that no other medium can achieve.