The Art Market Gallery: Member pages


Hollie LaRue Encaustic, Wax






Artist Statement My artwork is inspired by nature... Collecting natural forms as I explore the world around me, I take an up close look at the seeds, plants, and other organic forms that have fascinated me since my childhood years. Each object I collect has a personal significance to me, a reminder of my childhood home in the mountains, of simpler times, a longing for what has come and gone. I would consider my artwork naturalist and minimalist, as I create sparse compositions where the forms exist in a memory like space. I use a process called Encaustic, one of the oldest forms of painting, in which I take a medium made from beeswax and acrylic resin, melt it down, and apply many layers of wax and oil paints, fusing each layer with a heat gun. In many of my paintings I begin with a drawing on paper that I mount onto the panel before applying the wax. My paintings are created from many layers of adding, scraping, and drawing into the wax with an etching tool and rubbing oil paints into the lines I etch. My interest in Encaustic started in college when an Encaustic class was being offered and I was so intrigued by the thought of painting with beeswax as a medium. I grew up around a lot of beekeepers in my family, and helped my great-uncle, father, and other uncles prepare to rob his bees, as they gathered together to do so each summer and have long been fascinated with these wonderful creatures. I get my beeswax for my paintings from local beekeepers. Another one of my preferred mediums is watercolor, I enjoy the beautiful layers and translucency of the paint just as I do in encaustic. About me... My name is Hollie LaRue. I was born and raised in Del Rio, Tennessee a small beautiful place surrounded by national forest and nestled against the Appalachian Mountains. I now live in Maryville, TN and work as an elementary Art Teacher for Knox County Schools. Education Bachelors of Fine Arts with a concentration in Painting, East Tennessee State University 2008 Masters of Arts in Teaching, East Tennessee State University 2010

Next artist: Kathy Lovelace