Beginning Nov. 19, students may see something familiar in the art gallery of the Penick Academic Complex.
“Explorations in Wax,” Teresa Prater’s encaustic wax painting show, will open at 4:30 p.m. that day with a lecture by the artist. The reception follows at 5:30 p.m.
Encaustic painting is a medium that originated in ancient Greece and is a form of art many students may know about from taking an Arts in Western Civilization core class.
Making such a piece is a tedious process of melting beeswax, mixing it with pigment and layering it onto a wooden surface. The process has changed over the years, and the materials are easier to manipulate now.
Prater is a professor of studio art at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C.
The show will include more than 30 pieces of her work, and the pieces will include embedded photo transfers and embedded oil paint.
“This will be the first time I’ve brought in several series,” Prater said. “I want this to be educational. I’m going to show the different ways you can work with wax.”
Prater became interested in encaustics in 2006.
“I went home, bought the book, got the materials and tried it and was a complete failure,” Prater said. “I set it aside until I was on a sabbatical in 2008.”
When Prater tried again, she took a class on the medium and became proficient. During that 11-month sabbatical, she produced more than 90 encaustic works.
Lee Benson, chairman of the Department of Art, saw her work and booked the show three years ago.
“Encaustic is a very non-traditional way of painting, and we have never had that type of art in our gallery,” Benson said. “It opens up new avenues and ideas for our students about how art can be made. She is keeping a very unique form of art making alive and pushing it forward with exploration in both narrative and technique.”
Paige Ward, art department shop technician and Union alumna, said this is the kind of art show that provides the kind of learning necessary to be an artist.
“If you want to be great at what you’re doing, you have to commit to being a life-long learner,” Ward said. “Hopefully, bringing these shows will affirm that in students.”
Being a life-long learner is exactly what Prater aims to do when making her work.
She described encaustic painting as a medium so versatile that she continues to learn more with each piece.
Benson said the show will strengthen art students’ desire to follow God’s call.
“It is important to have artists such as Ms. Prater in our gallery,” he said. “It allows students to understand the richness of the creative act and how different mediums like beeswax can open up so many avenues for creativity and for being fully realized in God’s call.”
“Explorations in Wax” will be on display in the gallery until Dec. 16.