Joanne Mattera

Silk Road 221, Peach, Orange, Pink, Lilac Square Color Field Encaustic Painting

2014

Light aqua and green encaustic (pigmented beeswax) painting on birch panel with a bright yellow edge. Signed, dated and titled on verso. Joanne Mattera’s paintings are can be descri...

A deep, bright cobalt blue encaustic (pigmented beeswax) painting with light purple and vibrant teal accents on birch panel. Signed, dated and titled on verso. Joanne Mattera’s paintings can be described as lush minimalism, the work is chromatically rich and compositionally reductive. Each painting in the ongoing Silk Road series is a small color field achieved by layers of translucent wax paint applied at right angles. The series, began in 2005, was inspired by the iridescent hues of slubbed silk, hence the title, but very quickly evolved into a more expansive exploration of color. In plying the richness of the encaustic paint against the austerity of a very subtle grid the artist sets in motion a dynamic in which color and texture jostle for primacy. A decade and almost 300 paintings later, the artist is still enthralled with this exploration. Mattera is the foremost expert in the field of encaustic painting and is the founder and former director of the International Encaustic Conference. Her artwork is in the collections of The New Britain Museum of Contemporary Art, US Embassies (Slovenia and Poland), US State Department, Bank of America, and Norwegian Cruise Lines, to name a few as well as numerous private collections. Mattera writes a contemporary art blog, she is a frequent guest speaker and curator and is a member of American Abstract Artists (NYC). The artist lives and works in MA and in NYC. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The word comes originally from the Greek word “enkaustikis” meaning to “burn in” and the process dates back to the 5th century. The liquid or paste is applied to a surface —usually prepared wood. Metal tools...

Contemporary encaustic (pigmented beeswax) painting on birch panel in bright, vibrant teal blue with bright blue edges. Signed and titled on the verso. Joanne Mattera’s paintings ca...

This is a square, vibrant orange and purple encaustic (pigmented beeswax) painting on birch panel accented with bright pink and subtle gold details. Signed, dated and titled on verso...

16 x 16 x 2 inches encaustic on square wood panel HOSTESS is an abstracted painting in rich encaustic (pigmented wax) on wood panel. A dark, cross-hatched pattern is overlaid with ...

In this newest body of work, Claudia Marseille explores what she calls “universal hieroglyphics” using as her inspiration photographs of walls she has taken herself in her many travels around the world. What she discovered is a morphed universal language where something becomes other than it was originally. By incorporating her images with their torn edges of advertisements, posters and graffiti into her encaustic paintings she captures the layered elements of time, communication and tattered bits of popular culture. She takes the scarred beauty...

22 x 22 x 2 inches encaustic on square wood panel Stella is an abstracted painting in rich encaustic (pigmented wax) on wood panel. Using a neutral palette of dark brown, light blu...

In this newest body of work, Claudia Marseille explores what she calls “universal hieroglyphics” using as her inspiration photographs of walls she has taken herself in her many travels around the world. What she discovered is a morphed universal language where something becomes other than it was originally. By incorporating her images with their torn edges of advertisements, posters and graffiti into her encaustic paintings she captures the layered elements of time, communication and tattered bits of popular culture. She takes the scarred beauty...