The 7th International Encaustic Conference Reflections

Well, I'm just about rebounding from what was a fabulous 7th International Encaustic Conference held in Provincetown May 31 - June 2, with a week before of workshops and a week after!

 

I love this photo, as this poppy bloomed right before the conference and it looked fabulous in front of the Gallery 10, just in time for Natalie Abrams curated show in that space.  This very poppy bloomed last year at the same time!

 

This is a photo from inside the painting studio from Lisa Pressman's 2 day pigment stick workshop.

 Here is Sherrie Posternak in her lovely yellow apron that she sells. With special Mexican things sewed into it, along with a special rag! Very fun.

 Making some color choices in David A. Clark's Printmaking workshop with the hotBoxes!

 Paula Roland getting dirty with pigment stick, it's great to see teachers taking workshops!

David A. Clark looking as dapper as always!

Wayne Montecalvo letting his hair down!!

It felt different this year. There was no hurricane warning, or a wind tunnel tornado ripping through Springfield like a few years ago. This time, the sun came out, enthusiastic people arrived, everyone was charged about seeing each other, learning new things, sharing their work and bonding for what is a wonderful group of professional artists converging on Provincetown; the longest running art colony in the country.

Joanne Mattera who is the founder and director, showed up on the day of her mom's funeral, which was difficult, though she knew her mom didn't want anything but the conference to continue on! She & I, have been working on this event for almost a year. A good 9 months. It is a huge amount of work and once again it looked like it paid off! We make a great team together. We compliment each others differences and styles. It is good. I joke about her color coded sheets, and my notes scribbled on the back of an envelope. It works.

So....it started with a show at the Cape Cod Museum called "Swept Away", this was a beautiful show with 31 artists and a show that really stood out among shows in the work of Encaustic. Joanne and I met with the curator Michael Giaquinto on many occasions and he completely got it, had a vision and we helped walk him through all of that. Every step of the way!! We did a little conversation / talk with the docents of the museum a week before the conference. I thought 10-15 people would show up and it was a room of 50 people, eager to learn about this new interesting material that fascinated them. The best comment was from someone involved in the museum. He said" I walked into this show, into the gallery, and I was completely, Swept Away by the work, it wasn't about the material (encaustic) it was about just great work by so many artists! We couldn't have paid him to stand up and make that comment! That was a highlight.

 

 Here is a little Video from the Swept Away Show at the Cape Cod Museum.

Here I am posing in front of my pieces

Check out the Catalog for the Show here: SWEPT AWAY: Translucent, Transparent, Transcendent

Then the people arrived 200 from 35 states and 6 countries.....

Talks, Demos, workshops, juried show + 15 gallery shows from Wellfleet, Truro, & Provincetown.

So, besides all the exciting things going on at Castle Hill with the juried show by Shawn Hill, the curated show by Natalie Abrams, pre & post conference workshops.....I had a solo show of my work at Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown called Mostly In The Mornings. It was so great to see all my work together. This particular body of work, I feel is some of my best. It really felt like it vibrated when it stood next to one another. This work was done this winter in the gray skies of Provincetown. Lot's of weather this winter. Lots of views to stare out at. Ever changing all the time. They were all done in encaustic, pigment stick and marble dust.

It was great to have such a big audience see my work. I remember 2 years ago at the conference Dorothy Furlong Gardner said to me after she saw my work at the Hotel Fair...."Wow...I had no idea you were an artist, I thought you were just a director!" That stuck with me and made me laugh. It is true that most leaders of non-profit arts organization are not artists. I am one of the unique few. I do know that.

 

There was a theme / thread that weaved through the entire conference, which was "Raising the Bar" - it came up in all areas, from practice to teaching encaustic. 

Another exciting part of the conference was the panel on Saturday morning about Raising the Bar: Encaustic in Our Practice. Each had a unique perspective. The Saturday morning panel was with Lynn Basa, Mike Carroll, Miles Conrad, Laura Moriarty, Graceann Warn and moderator Joanne Mattera, considered how we perceive and approach our careers. It was inspirational and great!

The Sunday afternoon panel---- Raising the Bar: Toward a Standards and Practices in the Teaching of Encaustic, I was happy to lead this session with Sara Mast and Toby Sisson. It was a two-part session that considered the essential elements in teaching the medium of encaustic: materials, safety, content. We expect that the results of this workshop will create something of a publication or manual by the workshop leaders and participants for use at the university/art school level. Richard Frumess from R & F will also be working with us on this. It was an inspiring session. Toby focused on Content, Sara focused on Safety and I focused on Materials. The participants were very much part of the process.

Toby Sisson

Sara Mast

Toby, Cherie & Sara

 The following are some random photos from the conference, from shows, from demos, from talks....

Richard Frumess from R & F Handmade Paints

Kimberly Kent doing a demo on Plein Air Encaustic

The delicate balance of Kama Pigments

Hylla Evans of Evans Encaustic

Schoolhouse Gallery

Mike Carroll, director of Schoolhouse Gallery

Don't mess with Dorothy Cochran! She is doing a Demo on Calligraph & Encaustic

Jane & Elise

Cat Crotchett

Kelly McGrath

Ruth Hiller, doing some casting!

The hotel Fair

Great show curated by Natalie Abrams,  Lorrie Fredette in the distance

The SEVEN Show, the Juried Show of the Conference, juried by Shawn Hill at the Castle Hill Gallery

Natalie Abrams

A wall from the RED Show! At A Gallery, Provincetown

Catherine Nash & Shawn Hill

The hotel fair! With Cherie & Lisa

Graceann Warn

I was extremely excited to take a 2 days workshop in Mixed Media Workshop & Collaboration with Lisa Pressman and Sara Mast. This was a wonderful workshop by 2 inspiring teachers. Lots of new materials to explore, a powerpoint of artists they liked and that related to all of our works....and the big news is that we found out that Hans Hoffman's grave stone is locates an 1/8th of a mile up the hill from Castle Hill. So the class went and found the graves of Hans Hoffman as well as Charles Hawthorne! We did some rubbings and then did some "collaborative" works with the rubbing!

Lisa doing a demo

Sara doing a critique

Looking at work

Cherie & Lisa!

The teachers Collaborating on Kathy Kingston's painting

Here is the gravestone of Hans Hoffman

The Postcard Show!

Cherie & Joanne - "The Dream Team!"

Breathing now!