VICKY RADEL

Artist Statement

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       Prairie Impressions: Encaustic Painting 

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I am a woman that belongs to the prairie. I was born and raised on the Minnesota prairie and left it for the city for 30 years. In 2007 my husband and I moved back to the prairie to be stewards of our land. I am blessed to live every day in the amazing beauty and healing of the land. That beauty infuses my work and is seen in the horizons, prairie fires, flowers, grasses, trees, big skies, colors and textures.

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 I started my artistic pursuits with photography and various classes in painting and mixed media. It wasn’t until I took classes in encaustic painting that I felt I had found “my” medium.  I was finally able to achieve the look and the feel I had been looking for. I was thrilled.

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Encaustic medium is made of beeswax and resin to which pigment is added and applied to wood or another porous substrate in a molten state and fused and manipulated with heat. It is an incredibly pliable surface with layers of wax  creating depth and receiving impressions, marks, images and collage elements. Creative options are many and make work in this medium very enjoyable.

In my experience with encaustic painting, the medium itself is as much a participant in the process as my own ideas. We work as co-creators of each painting. I am often surprised by the interactions of heat with the pigmented wax which will move and shape with my guidance yet often give birth to a texture or blending of color that is unexpected. The process is an interactive and interesting journey of discovery and joy. My recent work with "raw wood" (discarded lumber or natural wood that exhibit beautiful grain and "flaws have pushed me into expanding my mediums. To the point that now I consider myself a mixed media artist. This expansion has brought further opportunity for artistic exploration.

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I like to integrate my photography into my encaustic work to capture the beauty and mystery of nature in a way the viewer can experience the energetic and sensual feel of a certain place at a certain time.  Nature often offers us abstract expressions that draw the viewer in to look closer and wonder about images, capturing the imagination. I am continually inspired and nourished by the landscapes of the prairie where I live and work.

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Vicky Radel 

Norcross, MN