Elise Wagner
Elise Wagner
Elise Wagner is a painter, printmaker, educator, and innovator. Originally from Jersey City, New Jersey, she has been living and working in Oregon since 1986. Influenced by the geology of the Pacific Northwest, what underlies the cartographic and topographic nature of her work is the awe and curiosity of nature, astronomy and the sciences. Through her studio practice and travels, she continues to explore the dualities that exist between nature, science, technology and humanity which are often metaphorical expressions in her work. Elise has found that the encaustic medium perfectly aligns with her practice - now more than ever, in her awe inspiring natural surroundings on the Northern Oregon Coast.
Over the span of decades, she has expanded her range and developed unique approaches to working with encaustic, resulting in artwork that aims to visually captivate yet intellectually compel with its layers of depth and symbolism. In the early 1990s, her exploration of encaustic led her to innovate a method of printing from the texture of her paintings, “encaustic collagraph”, which merges the techniques of encaustic painting with collagraph printmaking.
It is worth noting that Elise's encaustic painting practice has been greatly influenced since establishing her printmaking practice in 2005. Her teaching reflects her findings as she continues integrating various approaches to printmaking, encaustic and vice versa. This interplay between mediums has added depth and richness to Elise’s process and greatly enriched her teaching practice. She is excited to share her most recent discoveries with you during Painting with Fire 2024.
Elise's work can be viewed in person at galleries in Washington D.C., Palm Springs, CA, Seattle, WA, and Astoria, Oregon.
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You can view Elise’s work at:
Class Details
The Fusion of Elements: When Encaustic Wax Meets Clay
Join instructor Elise Wagner in an exciting session that explores layering and embossing different textiles and fibers in encaustic painting. Discover how the combination of wax and textiles can transform artwork and add dimension to paintings, bringing a whole new level of creativity to the practice.
In this workshop, various techniques and approaches to incorporating fibers and textiles into encaustic painting will be explored. Participants will learn how to fuse and imprint fabric onto wax, creating unique, richly textured surfaces that can be manipulated, layered, and transformed. The process of selecting and preparing different types of woven fibers will be guided, exploring their qualities and how they interact with the wax medium to create patterns.
Depending on the fabric chosen, surfaces that depict water, coral, rocks, landscapes, or topography can be created. The integration of different fibers for texture in encaustic paintings is limitless, whether as a patterned background, a collage element, or a focal point for compositions. Techniques for embossing, inlaying, or imprinting fibers into the wax will be taught, resulting in one-of-a-kind interesting textures and visual effects.
Encaustic Trace & Transfer
Ever wonder how you can draw on wax? In this short 30 minute session, you will learn how! Wagner fell in love with the encaustic medium through its warmth, texture, depth and the chance alchemy that occurs with “happy accidents”. In this short session, learn how to manipulate those lingering moments of the warm surface after fusing to transfer, draw, mark or trace imagery.
We will be using a variety of graphite and color transfer papers and drawing tools to create detailed superimposed images on your encaustic works. We will also delve into graphite rubbing of a variety of textures in nature or even in your paintingsand transfer of organic matter.
