When I visited the Blue Hollomon gallery a couple of months ago, I was drawn to the work of one artist in particular: Gayla Ranf.
I’ve already embraced my addiction to color, but I also have a weakness for encaustic paintings. Gayla’s work is all about wax: the layers, the process, the flow.
I read about bit about her, and it turns out that Gayla is also an artistic decorator and architectural painter. She can imitate copper patina, marble, old world stone, brick finishes in her work, which is pretty cool. I think I can see those influences in the piece above – what do you think?
I love the way Gayla describes her process:
Gayla Ranf Artist Statement
I love wax; to cajole, mold, carve, layer to create. The head of my pallet melting the wax and smelling its aroma causes a feeling of captivation and curiosity. It’s where I discover the endless possibilities of creating.
Just starting out, learning and explore makes me feel young again. Though it’s an endless process of practice, I’m excited to see where it takes me. This medium has almost limitless boundaries and potential allowing me to let go, unconcerned about stopping to “think.” When I’m at my best, my brain is unengaged and divorced from the process because my heart is in control of creating.
I have visions of designs, maybe just colors, or a feeling I want to imbue. Some of my influences occur from photos I’ve taken or recently found artifacts that I incorporate into my work. My creation begins when I lay the first base of wax, letting the movement of the wax and oil, pastels and layering direct me along the way. Working on one piece, something may transpire that gives me inspiration for another. Working with wax, heat, and fire, I am reminded how much everything changes, sometimes before we are ready for it. Staying in the present is the biggest challenge of all. In the end, wax just keeps giving me gifts of its possibilities the more I work.
I make art to discover, to explore, to delve into the possibilities of my creations and with myself. I am learning about myself as I move through this process with this wonderful, luminous medium and its happy accidents that sometimes occur. IT is definitely a journey of self-discovery as well as technical awareness. Just like encaustics, we are many layers, adding or removing to mold who we are.
It’s so much fun to get a peek into the hows and whys of her creations. I hope to see much, much more of her work in the future.
Lovely work! I too, spent many moments taking them all in at Blue Hollomon.
Such an awesome gallery!