Allyson Levy

Barking Betula: Abstract Encaustic Painting with Brown Allegheny Birch Bark

2011

Allyson Levy began by finding the organic material in her four acre garden in upstate New York, which she then arranged and embedded with encaustic on a wooden panel. The separate leaves were laid in a linear abstract motif on the panel and layered with a thick coat of encaustic wax. The encaustic wrapped around to the sides of the panel, revealing some bumps and downward drips, accumulated during the natural drying process of the encaustic. Levy is represented by Carrie Haddad Gallery based in Hudson, NY. After moving to the rural town of Stone Ridge, NY 17 years ago and starting a four acre botanical garden with her husband, mixed media artist, Levy has found endless inspiration in the plant kingdom that surrounds her. The garden itself, named Hortus Conclusus, consisting of thousands of rare plants and edibles, remains at the epicenter of Levy’s art making. A fascination with earth’s bounty is expressed with her works in encaustic. Assorted organic material such as leaves, seeds, branches, insect wings and flowers are decoratively arranged in a layer of beeswax, encaustic and pigment. Some panels have richly pigmented backgrounds, specks of gold found in poppy pods reflect off of a mat black base and plum purple contrasts the natural coloration of birch bark. Following her original inspiration based on a 15th century practice of preserving seeds in wax during extended sea voyages, Levy’s intentions are to capture and reflect on a specific moment in the material’s life span. Levy has exhibited with the gallery and regionally since 2000.