Kathy Dubay is a Santa Fe artist who works in Encaustics and has done so for the past few years. She has been painting for the past 14 years in Oils and various other mediums showing at renowned galleries throughout the Southwest. Kathy moved from Michigan to the Southwest 6 years ago and is represented in Santa Fe exclusively at POP.

Like most artists, I was attracted to the beauty of the desert, colors and mountains here in New Mexico. I had been painting in oils for several years but discovered Encaustics shortly after I moved here. For all that are unfamiliar with the term, Encaustics is a Greek word and means “to burn in”. It is the use of bees wax and dammar crystals, melted with a heat gun or blow torch. I love the rich, translucent colors I can achieve, and the versatility of the medium.

I seem to have replaced a paint brush with a blow torch when creating my art. The inability to completely control the medium is exciting and challenging for me. The torch allows me to manipulate the wax, but not completely control it. The wax gives me the ability to become more fluid in my work. I am only limited by my imagination.

It’s become important to me to educate people of the durability of encaustics, and its origins. I have been doing that through workshops and demos. Encaustics have been around long before any other medium.

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