We are pleased to bring our first featured encaustic artist to the Gilley, as November’s People-Nature-Art presenter. Hélène Farrar is a contemporary American artist who works primarily in encaustic. Her colorful paintings draw themes from both the natural world and her observations of people, and they have a depth and luminousness achieved through careful attention to texture and surface quality. She considers her work part of a conversation about humanity, beauty, and nature. Farrar’s unique style is playful but also serious. “I’m very serious about my silly work,” she says. “I take it very seriously.”

Encaustic is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium (often beeswax and resin) to which colored pigments have been added. The molten mix is applied to a surface, usually prepared wood, and tools can be used to shape the wax.

Join Farrar at the Museum on Tuesday, Nov. 10 for a reception at 6pm followed by her presentation at 7pm (which will be offered in-person, and online.)

She comes from a family of self-taught artists and designers. She was raised in Farmington, Maine, and is influenced by the natural beauty of her home state, as well as her parents’ New York City backgrounds and her travels around the world. Hélène has a BA in Art, State of Maine Teaching Certification, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts art degrees from Goddard College in Vermont. She recently relocated to Rockland, with her husband, daughter (at college) and Mister Biscuit a rescue cat. Her new studio is on Turkey Cove in Tenants Harbor.