18th International Encaustic Conference

Working in the abstract, Karen Bright’s painting and sculpture derive from an innate focus on the natural world and concern for the environment. The ancient method of encaustic – a fusing of beeswax and damar resin with pigment added for color – is harnessed through a process of heating and cooling the temperature. This aspect of materiality connected to each work’s intent serves not only as the control behind each work but as the driving force. Exhibiting since 1981, Karen’s work has won numerous exhibition awards and project grants from a wide variety of organizations including: Urban...

Debra Claffey is a visual artist who uses encaustic, oil, and mixed media in her work. She holds a BFA in Painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University and an Associate's Degree in Horticultural Technology from the University of New Hampshire. Claffey recently received the Juror’s Award at the 2019 Anything But Flat exhibition at the 13th International Encaustic Conference. Claffey has curated three Conference exhibitions, the most recent being The Space Between Shadow and Light at Gallery X in June 2017. She is a founding member and a Past-President of New England Wax... Read more

Isabelle Gaborit  is a contemporary artist, though her preferred medium of encaustic is ancient. She graduated in 2006 with an honors degree in fine arts in Ireland. Since then, she has been exhibiting work extensively nationally and internationally in, among others, The United States, Northern Ireland, China and France.  Her creative process goes hand in hand with her daily sketching practice where she explores mark-making and gesture, as she absorbs her experience of her surroundings and visual memory of place: forms, colours, textures and patterns. This experience is transmuted into her...