Encaustic, found photograph on vintage washboard.
12x24"
When I first looked at the small photo used in Taste of Freedom—I saw only a happy woman driving in a new car. But when I enlarged it on my screen I could see that she was driving away from her husband who was trying to control a number of energetic children. I paired this image with a vintage washboard—women’s work was hard without our modern conveniences… she didn’t have a washing machine but the new car would make her life a little easier.
Ruth Maude (she/her) is a mixed media encaustic artist based in Toronto. Her work has been shown in solo and group shows throughout Ontario and is in private collections in Canada and the United States.
Ruth paints with molten beeswax, this is an ancient medium called encaustic that uses heat to apply and fuse the medium.
Her creative practice is one of exploration and play. The founder of the popular All Things Encaustic blog, she is constantly experimenting with a variety of encaustic materials, techniques and tools and sharing her discoveries with her readers.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Rarely do I approach a piece with a preconceived endpoint in mind. To me, art-making is a creative practice of exploration and play. I’m committed to carving out space in my life to show up and learn what it has to teach me about myself and my world.
Encaustic is a wonderfully versatile medium. I love the natural beauty of beeswax and the wide range of techniques that work with it. I’m drawn to the way encaustic painting engages my senses—the way that it looks, smells and feels. Encaustic painting is done in layers. It is a process of building up and scraping away to reveal what lies beneath the surface. Each layer of encaustic medium is fused using heat. Working with different fusing tools I can either maintain or eliminate texture.
Often there’s an interesting call-and-response dynamic between what the wax chooses to do and my intention as I paint.
- Ruth Maude
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