LESLIE ANNE GUINAN
I paint with encaustic—a paint made with beeswax, tree resin and pigment. It is molten when brushed on in a thin layer and immediately hardens; think of a bead of wax rolling down the side of a candle. It must be built up layer after layer using heat to fuse each successive layer to the one below. I most often use a torch, occasionally a heat gun. It is an extremely time consuming process which yields a deep, luminous quality unlike any other paint.
I use plaster, paper and /or plant material interspersed between layers of paint to create depth and texture. Much of my work also contains additional pigment in the form of graphite, oil and dry pigments.
I began my career as a craftsperson as a fine furniture maker. I love construction and materiality and continue to employ those skills in my pieces with inserts containing natural elements and found objects.
As a furniture maker I generally began a project with a color palette—in that case the choice of woods. As a painter I begin the same way, with nothing in mind but color, slowly building layers until memory or place or emotion begins to reveal composition or direction.