The Redland Museum’s February exhibition entitled Made with Love and Beeswax, features the artwork of Libby North and will be staged in the Dunn Wing gallery.
Libby’s art focuses on texture, color, and nostalgia, creating pieces that evoke memories and bring joy to the viewer. Libby said she used the ancient technique of encaustic painting, which involved using melted beeswax and resin. She incorporates various materials into her work, such as drawings, photos, and textiles.
“I love to create and have a love of texture and colour, creating inspirational art with a sense of fun, an element of nostalgia and evoking memories. Creating old patinas by recycling and reusing found objects, I like to give them a new life adding to their story, having hidden layers that invite a person to look a little deeper, seeing something that perhaps another person doesn’t,” Libby said.
“To get lost in a piece, if just for a few moments, there is a simple beauty in that. To bring a bit of beauty and whimsy to someone’s life is a joy. To bring a smile, a connection to someone is pure privilege and that is my passion.”
Libby said the work was also about the journey which brought joy and she hoped for that to transfer to the beholder.
“The process of creating is so fascinating. It’s a lot of fun and so exciting. Accidental mixes, purposeful placements and surrendering to the unpredictability makes this journey pure joy. Being totally immersed in the process.”
Libby said the medium included mixing colour pigment and tree (demar) resin to melted beeswax and applying in layers to a substrate.
“Each layer is fused to the previous layer by fusing with a blowtorch or heat gun. This is the perfect medium to preserve elements into your work. Just as nature is built up of layers over time and decayed through time and weather revealing remnants of what has come before, so is the process of encaustic.”
The Redland Museum, 60 Smith Street, Cleveland is open seven days a week from 10am to 3.30pm. Enquiries to 3286 3494, www.redlandmuseum.org.au
