Shelley Wuitchik’s encaustic abstract paintings reflect layered sensibilities rooted in a personal connection to her community and surroundings. Her commitment to local nature, community, and lifelong learning particularly inform her current compilation of paintings, aptly titled Full Circle.

Both the form and content of these works are circular. Some seem to contain spheres, while others poise movement and stillness in ways that are reminiscent of her earlier work. Encaustic painting, using molten wax which hardens during application, invites a balancing act between free flow and sculpted solidity. Wuitchik’s dynamic and spontaneous physical approach embraces this transition, as well as the endless options for bright contrasting pigments to lift visually through the luminosity of the medium. Her handling, especially in this current work, evokes flow and movement. Orbs, bubbles, layers, and translucency, here depicted in the abstract, also appear naturally in the liquid wax itself. Such forms suggest deeper resonances, such as rising to reveal individual beauty. Overlaid circles are interdependent, just as we are personally and spiritually. Wuitchik’s sequester in her studio through our current pandemic accentuated her awareness of our need for connection, which she channelled into these works, in the hope that they would each become a point of contact for shared experience.

SHELLEY WUITCHIK

SHELLEY WUITCHIK