Verity Roberts

Upcoming Exhibition: Poetry Fragmented

7th September - 13 September at Water Through Reeds Gallery in Bungendore, NSW. Find out more.

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Verity Roberts is an Australian contemporary mixed media artist based in Lake George, NSW. Her main body of work focuses on painting abstract landscapes using encaustic and cold wax medium.

Deeply marked by her childhood memories of living in and absorbing foreign cultures – from Latin America, South Africa to Sri Lanka – Verity’s love for travel and landscapes continues to express itself in her vibrant, dynamic bodies of work.

Her encaustic and cold wax art equally capture a reverence for the beauty of nature in its wild and wonderful ways.

Originally self-taught, she has dedicated the past decade to build on her passion for encaustic art. For this she has attended and participated in numerous workshops, exhibitions and encaustic conferences in the US. Today, her work expands the encaustic technique by blending wax pencils, digital print transfers and inks into the process.

Prior to her artist career, Verity successfully worked as a set decorator in the film industry for over 35 years.

Her art work is internationally collected and currently represented both in Mexico and Australia.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up in different countries across the globe, I developed my sense of ‘home’ from observing and exploring colour and texture rather than language. From weaving textiles in South America to the red desert of the Australian outback, my work is a visual synthesis of memories stored over my lifetime of travelling the world.

From my artist studio I look into the Australian bush and see a mob of kangaroos, shingleback lizards or a flock of black cockatoos and the southern night skies peppered brightly with stars and pinks & mauves … the mornings often bathed in mist, I tend to fully immerse myself in the natural environment I’m surrounded by. It is where I draw my inspiration from.

I feel very free in my work. Some say that is the upside for not having gone through formal training in art school. 

I paint at a fast pace and often create many pieces simultaneously, moving to an inner rhythm of inspiration that is fuelled by the playfulness and rawness of working with encaustic and cold wax.

I give myself permission to let my instinct guide me through the process of layering, collage and uncovering texture, movement, colour and marks in order to reveal the unseen and create a sense of time passing. Then I take a step back to let each piece ‘breathe’  and observe what the painting is telling me – what story or emotion wants to come through – before I add or take away or fully cover-up and start again. 

This gives each painting a sense of depth and potency that invites viewers to explore beyond the surface and connect to a felt sense of emotion as much as a visual experience.

© Verity Roberts

ABOUT ENCAUSTIC

Encaustic is a wax-based paint composed of beeswax, resin and pigment. It is applied to a porous surface and then fused by heat. The word ‘Encaustic’ comes from the Greek word, which means “to burn in” – referring to the process of fusing the paint. I do it with an open flame, some do it with a heat gun.

Encaustic is perhaps the most beautiful of all artists’ paints and it is as versatile as any 21st century medium. It can be polished to a high gloss, carved, scraped, layered, collaged, dipped, cast, modelled, sculpted, textured and combined with oil. It cools immediately – so there is no drying time yet can always be reworked.

Encaustic is also the most durable of artist’s paints. This is due to the fact that beeswax is impervious to moisture and is a preservative. Because of this, it will not deteriorate, it will not yellow and it will not darken. Encaustic paintings do not have to be varnished or protected by glass but when transported, should first be covered by wax paper before wrapping in bubble.

Encaustic is a beeswax-based painting medium with a small amount of damar resin – this acts as a hardener. It can be used as a luminous traditional painting medium. The cooled paint can be buffed to bring up the lustre of the wax and resin.

EXHIBITIONS

  • May 2023 ‘Waxing Lyrical’ at Water Through Reeds Gallery, Bungendore

  • Feb 2019 ‘Our Unique Land’ at Art2Muse Gallery

  • Aug 2018 Raglan Gallery, Cooma

  • Sep 2017    Art2Muse, Double Bay

  • Sep 2017     Breathing Colours, Balmain

  • Dec 2016        Art2Muse, Double Bay

  • June 2014        Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay             

  • Oct 2016      The Other Art Fair, Sydney

  • June 2013         Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay

  • Nov 2009   Breathing Colours, Balmain

  • Sep 2009   Breathing Colours, Balmain

  • Aug 2008       National Grid, Dee Why

  • July 2008          Washhouse Gallery, Rozelle

  • Aug 2006         Primrose Park Cremorne

ART EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

  • 2023. Maine Encaustic Retreat w. Dietlind vander Schaaf in Kennebunkport ME.

  • 2022.    QLD Cheryl McGannon & Kym Barrett

  • 2018          12th International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA.

  • 2018          Cold Wax Medium 5 day Masterclass with Pamela Caughey

  • 2017         Lorraine Glassner, Gestural Intensive, Castle Hill, Truro, Massachusetts USA

  • 2017         11th International Encaustic Conference, Provincetown, Massachusetts USA

  • 2017          Rebecca Crowell & Jerry McLaughlin, Cold Wax Medium Masterclass, New Zealand

  • 2016         The Other Art Fair, Sydney

  • 2016         Susan Lasch Krevitt, Encaustic & Cyanotypes

  • 2016         Corina Alvarezdelugo, Texture & 3D Encaustic

  • 2016          Lorraine Glassner, Intensive Layering

  • 2016          10th Int’l Encaustic Conference, Provincetown, Massachusetts

  • 2006 – 14 Annette Pringle, Mixed Media Courses

  • 2014          Shawna Moore, National Art School Sydney

  • 2013          Paula Roland, Encaustic Monotypes & Carbon Lab, Santa Fe New Mexico

  • 2013         EncaustiCon Santa Fe, New Mexico

  • 2013          WaxWorksWest, Intensive Advanced, Santa Cruz, California USA

  • 2012          Raé Miller, Encaustic on Paper, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

  • 2012          San Antonio School of Art, Texas USA
                      EncaustiCon San Antonio, Texas USA

  • 2011          Eschwan Winding, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

  • 2010         Daniella Woolf, Encaustic Workshop
                      Chapman & Bailey, Brisbane