Marks & Textures

BEESWAX CREATES A BUZZ

Friday, March 9th, moments after the paper came down from the windows and the doors opened, people were filing in to Paradigm Art to view new work in encaustic by Elena De La Ville. Ms. De La Ville is widely known and respected around the Sarasota arts community. She teaches at Ringling and the LBK arts center, and you’ve probably seen her at her farmer’s market booth on Saturday mornings. This show, Marks and Textures, is Ms. De La Ville’s first major one-woman show in Sarasota since 2000. The work is not what we are used to seeing in Sarasota galleries,  “No other gallery would do this,”  says De La Ville sweeping her arm to encompass the room. The collaboration between De La Ville and gallery owner, Katrina Costedio, is proving to be a successful one. The first piece, Torso I, from the “Flesh and Rust” series, sold within 5 minutes of opening the doors. The buyer said that she knew she had to act before someone else scooped the piece up.  

 The show consists of two distinct series, Flesh and Rust, photographic prints enhanced with beeswax, and Encaustic Gradations, a series of small, textural pieces painted in earthy encaustic hung alone or as installation.  The medium, encaustic, being the common thread.  Many people are unfamiliar with this rarely used, and difficult to master medium.  Throughout the evening, Ms. De La Ville’s charming accent could be heard lilting over the latin music in explanation of her medium to interested viewers.

 And what is encaustic?  It is beeswax and pigment kept molten on a heated palette.  In De La Ville’s case, it is heated in a tin can on a hot-plate.  The artist applies it to a surface with various brushes and implements.  Since wax carries the pigment, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface. Encaustic is the medium used by the Greeks to create the Fayum portraits (likeness of the deceased painted on a small wooden plank).  Many of these portraits remain, and their color is as fresh as any contemporary work.  De La Ville says, “I do not close my doors to the bees, they actually come in and make themselves at home. They are attracted by the smell.  It is very cool.”  She uses organic, local wax, adding new meaning to the term ‘local art.’  

 “It is wonderful to see such a positive reaction in Sarasota to innovative work like Elena’s.  This kind of reaction is what we hope for every time we hang a show-- it is why I get out of bed in the morning. “ says Costedio, “Elena is such a wonderful, open person who has been giving to our community for years; it makes me very proud to see the community coming out to support her now.”  

 Want to learn more? The artist will give a brief encaustics lecture and slide show on Friday, March 23rd @ 6PM.  

The show hangs until March 31st.  Gallery hours: Tuesday, Wednesday 11AM to 6PM.  Thursday through Saturday 11AM to 8PM. Closed Sunday, Monday.  Anytime by appointment.  

 Katrina Castedio,
Paradigm Gallery