ABOUT PENNY TREESE

Are beauty and aging contradictions in terms?

Penny Treese's masterful encaustic works invite an answer to this question.

Observing the way our culture treats aging as an evil to avoid, Treese's technique begins with an out-of-focus photograph of a nude woman on thin paper. She distresses the image with water, wine, coffee, salt and cold—natural elements that age the human body. Finally, applying heat to layers of molten unbleached beeswax, Treese creates a beauty and integrity from her "aged" work—ultimately answering the aforementioned question with an empathic and absolute No.

Themes of stillness, presence and reflection are revealed throughout Penny Treese’s paintings, in both her figurative work and sea/landscapes. The interplay of molten unbleached beeswax and lustrous pigment creates images of land and sea, sea and sky, body and figure as field. Using an iron to apply heat and delicate pressure, Treese transforms meticulously manipulated wax and paint. The work occupies a space, fluid between landscape and portraiture, the body as field.

Drawing inspiration from 2 Corinthians, which speaks of a house in heaven and an eternal body made for us by God, Treese’s figures/fields transcend their earthly form and reach into a future that’s unseen, yet not unimagined.

A JACK INTERVIEW WITH PENNY TREESE

What is your favorite medium & why?

Encaustic. I am drawn to this medium due to its immediacy and flexibility. More so, its luminosity, lusciousness and sensuality and ability to pump up the vibrancy of pigment to breathtakingly magnificent hues. I love to pour the beeswax perfectly and seamlessly over photographs, transforming them reflections of my own spirit. Yet I also get lost in my colorful abstract encaustic landscapes, from the moment of mixing the oils to my ideal hue, brushing onto watercolor paper, then heating with irons or torches until a sublime abstract ocean or turbulent sky emerges.

What style are you most drawn to? Does it ever change & if so, why?

The desire/need to create abstract landscapes using the encaustic technique is what draws me to my studio daily. I find a peace...a sense of safety and acceptance within the process of painting the ocean and heavens, forests and fields. My style does change. I’m also obsessed with creating photo encaustic female imagery, yet the intention remains the same. Cepiatone and black & white floating goddesses, swimming, rising or “peacefully drowning” is about finding a sense of self, peace and unconditional acceptance of self, which is very loaded and personal to me.

Have you always been an artist or is this a career change?

I graduated Cum Laude, Bachelors of Science in Graphic Design in the early nineties. My education was phenomenal, concentrating primarily on fine arts and art history, then focusing on graphic design and typography. I landed a job in design at one of the top ad agencies in Atlanta on my first interview. Over the next 10 years I advanced to art director and creative director status and worked at best ad agencies and creative firms in town. 2008’s recession turned out to be a blessing for me, since ad dollars were obliterated and so was my freelance design business. The blessing? I immersed myself in painting, rented a studio and found my work selling at galleries. Painting brings out the best in me – I’m grateful for this career change.

Have you ever taken classes/courses?

I’ve taken every art course I could get my hands on since I’ve been a child. However, learning the basis techniques of encaustic from Jason McGrady gave me the confidence to pursue a CAREER in art, not just paint occasionally as a hobby. Currently, to fuel my passion, I’m enrolled in a “graduate program” of sorts with the Fine Arts Workshop and nationally known artists, Michael David and Tom Swanston. Through their intense workshops and Alterier program my work has evolved and blossomed far beyond my wildest dreams, in a short amount of time.

What do you want your art to accomplish or describe?

I attempt to convey a sense of self in my paintings. Whether I accomplish that through translucent, smooth, undulating layers of blues and turquoise in an abstract ocean painting or through meticulously pouring the appropriate layers of wax over a photograph of a peacefully floating woman...I discover my true self in the process and the final piece. There is freedom in knowing that imperfections make my pieces more personal. I can embrace my imperfections through painting my essence and spirit.

Which comes first - the inspiration or the medium?

First comes my inspiration, usually embodying the element of “light” then the medium (usually encaustic due to its ability to illuminate from within) is chosen to bring the inspiration to fruition. If the inspiration calls for clay, glass, paper, etc., then I follow that instinct. Medium is a means to my end – allowing self expression and the absence of fear – to create by being simple, intentional and beautiful. A family member and that has known me since birth wrote this statement about my art which names my inspiration and commitment to medium: “She is a journeyer moving through time and space reluctant to give up on anyone or anything close to her.  Loyal to her medium choices, she infuses light and beauty into dark spaces awaiting her light.  Bringers of the dawn will recognize in her their aim to glorify and magnify beauty in its raw and refined forms.  What attracts one to her works of art vary but consistent in all of them is the light of clear purpose, the light of pure choice, the light that transcends.”<

How has your work changed over time?

Yes, very much so. I’ve learned to make the “accidents become my vocabulary” in regards to my encaustic painting. I strive to own the marks and make them specific - repeating the accidents. I used to simply paint what I was feeling at the time. Now I can meditate on what I need to express then be clear and intentional yet follow the accidents and sensual undulations of the medium to create more sophisticated pieces. Once I decided to make myself a “fact,” meaning “it is a fact that I’m an artist and create artwork,” then my artwork changed with this commitment to self. If you don’t believe in yourself then no one else will.

If somebody was standing in front of one of your works, is there anything you'd want to tell them?

I enjoy observing onlookers of my work and trying to read their minds as they get lost in my paintings. I hope they have no idea how I created the marks and drawings that occurred, since I didn’t know how I ultimately and intuitively arrived at that place. However, a true artist knows when they’ve “gotten there” and wouldn't change a thing – THEN can repeat that process in piece after piece.

Can you draw a perfect circle freehand?

What is perfect? Seamless line as if drawn with a compass? Or is perfection in the mind of the beholder? A perfect circle to me, on a given day, might be created by closing my eyes and drawing the essence of a circle with my left finger, dipped in paint. So yes, I can draw MY perfect circle freehand.