What Lay Ahead, Ruth Hamill, Encaustic on Canvas, 60x40 inches, 2022
The Big Moments, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 60x40 inches, 2021
Walk on the Beach, Ruth Hamill, encuastic on canvas 44x44 inches, 2019
Breeze, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 44x84 inches
Sunny Skies, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 24x52 inches
Swim, Ruth Hamill,encaustic on canvas, 60x34 inches
Fresh Air, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 14x40 inches
Float, encaustic on canvas, 42x24 inches
Generous, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 24x24
Weathered, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas,
Indomitable, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 18x18 inches
Mesmeric, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 18x18 inches
Break Away, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 24x24 inches
Complexities, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 60x40
Dreamy, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 32x60 inches
Day Dream, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 18x36 inches
Forthright, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 24x60 inches
Courage, Ruth Hamill, Encaustic on Canvas, 6x6 inches, 2022
A Distant Light, Ruth Hamill, Encaustic and Oil on Linen, 34x66
Time to Think, Ruth Hamill, encaustic on canvas, 24x48 inches
The Wave (Ode to Hokusai), Ruth Hamill, Encaustic and Oil on Linen, 40x60 inches
Toes in the Sand, Ruth Hamill, encaustic and oil on linen, 40x60 inches
I have to surrender to the unruly medium of encaustic. Like sailor to sea, I make peace with it.
This body of work is not just about the translucency, light, and movement of the wave; but that too. It is about transiency. The existence of a wave is really a fiction. There cannot be a stop-motion wave caught in time; as soon as the wave exists, it changes, moves on.
I like to paint with traditional materials in new ways and believe it is best for the subject to dictate the medium and the handling of that medium. My desire to paint this body of work brought me to the difficult and generally underachieving medium of encaustic.
Now, with years of experimentation and practice, I can get the encaustic paint to rise to the challenge of the water: to produce the transient or translucent effects I seek.
There is a materiality to my paintings. My process and studio practice is messy. Gravity is engaged. Pigment is poured, blown, and manhandled. Patterns evoking the sea, sand and sky emerge and I coax them, exploiting the materials to my end. Color and form become sea foam carried by the wind or the purposeful movement within a wave.