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Sara Hemmer
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For Sara Hemmer, the Pacific Northwest provides a perfect playground to study dramatic landscapes and exaggerated skies that inspire her abstract encaustic paintings.
The encaustic technique allows Sara to express nature’s complexity and beauty through layer upon layer of beeswax, paints, pigments, oil sticks and inks, papers, and other organic elements. Each medium has its own unique interplay with the layers above and below it.
The process of encaustic is both additive and subtractive, allowing Sara to build up and carve back while laying down a dozen or more layers. Wielding a gas torch like a paintbrush, she can move liquid wax to mimic the way natural forces carve deep ravines, etch rock faces, and conjure great waves. The layers give a translucency and luminosity to the paintings that mirror nature: guided by the elements, but never fully tamable.
In 2021-2022, Sara was selected as Artist in Residence at Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch’s EncaustiCastle. A full-time painter, Sara splits her time between Portland and Gleneden Beach at the coast.
The encaustic technique allows Sara to express nature’s complexity and beauty through layer upon layer of beeswax, paints, pigments, oil sticks and inks, papers, and other organic elements. Each medium has its own unique interplay with the layers above and below it.
The process of encaustic is both additive and subtractive, allowing Sara to build up and carve back while laying down a dozen or more layers. Wielding a gas torch like a paintbrush, she can move liquid wax to mimic the way natural forces carve deep ravines, etch rock faces, and conjure great waves. The layers give a translucency and luminosity to the paintings that mirror nature: guided by the elements, but never fully tamable.
In 2021-2022, Sara was selected as Artist in Residence at Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch’s EncaustiCastle. A full-time painter, Sara splits her time between Portland and Gleneden Beach at the coast.
