Meet Victoria Pierson

Victoria, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been an artist since I was a four or five years old. I’ve drawn with pencils and charcoal, pastels, painted with acrylics and oil, but it wasn’t until 2015 that I found my medium: encaustic. I was on Pinterest searching for a cracking technique to use in a painting I was working on. I came across shellac burn on wax and was intrigued.

To do it, shellac and dry pigments are stirred 50 times like a perfect martini and then applied to the wax. Then with the use of a blow torch the shellac is burned to create a cracked webbing effect. This discovery piqued my inner art detective. What is this encaustic stuff? Sadly my online research proved fruitless. There were blog postings and videos showing particular techniques, but no soup to nuts walkthroughs. My luck changed early December 2015. There was an email in my inbox from Alicia Tormey, the artist who had been my introduction to the shellac burn technique. She was giving a one day workshop on June 11, 2016. Perfect. Yet, it was in Seattle. I live in Houston.

More importantly, I was a starving artist. How was I going to pull off this trip? I didn’t have a clue, but I was going. Somehow. W.H. Murray wrote, “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.” This is what happened for me. I did not know how I was going to get to the workshop, but I committed myself to it. Doors magically appeared. Behind them things miraculously fell into place. Was this Providence? Serendipity? Destiny? Didn’t matter. It was happening!

First, I received a commission at my day job which covered the price of the workshop. Second, I had just purchased two Adele tickets. I’m a fan, but a friend, who had a large number of frequent flyers miles, was a bigger fan. I traded the concert tickets for a round trip ticket to Seattle. I was two-thirds of the way and cautiously optimistic when the third cog clicked into place. Another commission covered my stay at The Haunted Merchant Cafe and Saloon Hotel. (Sadly I have no ghost sightings to report.) I had everything I needed. All I had to do was wait.

Despite all outward appearances to the contrary, the day of my trip arrived. I gave myself a day and half before the workshop in order to explore Seattle. I am not much of a planner when it comes to visiting new cities. I find it more exciting to stumble onto things like finding hidden treasure. In Seattle “treasure” is on almost every corner. After wandering around Pike’s Place Market, I came across a Pink Door with no sign. Behind the door was a restaurant that served me the best meal while I was there. A boat tour of the bay closed out the day. The sweet air, delicious food, and beautiful surroundings put me in the perfect mindset to start my greatest artistic adventure.

The next day I arrived to the workshop bright and early. I had walked to the location the day before so that I knew exactly where to find it. I rang the bell and Alicia came down to greet me. I was a bundle of raw, exposed nerves but her warm smile put me at ease. Since I was early, I got a personal tour of her studio. It is housed in a building from the 30’s. Most striking was the beautiful hardwood floors, and ALL the wax stuck to them. My heart breathed a sigh of relief to find a sistren messy artist—a functioning chaos of materials and art supplies. Slowly the five other students arrived. Some came from as far as South America and Australia.

The day was broken into distinct parts. First, Alicia went into the torch safety and the materials that we will be using. She told us a little about the history of encaustic. She concluded with a lesson on how to make our encaustic medium with damar resin and beeswax, and how, with the option of adding in dry pigment, to get a range of colors. Second, we set up our work area. We got a 24” x 24” piece of the sheetrock to use as the base to set our art panel. Sheetrock is preferable because you need something fireproof when working with a blowtorch. We then prepared the art panels, running blue painter’s tape around the edges of our birch board panel. This is to make removal of the wax drips are easy when the piece is finished.

Third, we set the foundation of our painting. Alicia began by telling how to get a smooth surface. Unless you want a textured piece, you need to remove any imperfections before you start. We began with the clear medium, building up layer, making sure to fuse each layer together. Otherwise, the art piece will lose structure integrity. With that foundation, we moved on to the white pigmented wax. After several layers, our panels looked like cake fondant.

Finally, we were cut loose to do our own thing. Using the different colored wax we played. After a few hours, when we were happy with our design, we let the wax cool to room temperature. The next step was the shellac burn, the technique I had searched the internet for months ago. Finally, she showed us how to carve into the piece to add lines, how to fill the lines in with oil paint, and then how to remove any excess paint with vegetable oil. The day ended with Alicia showing us how to pack our piece for the return home trip. I was completely drained as if my entire being had spilt out on the panel rather than damar resin, beeswax, shellac, and pigment. I left the workshop a new person. I had absorbed the benefits of Alicia’s twenty years of experience and techniques. But the most important thing I learned that day, the Holy Grail of personal soul searching, my purpose. I am an encaustic artist.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Learning is the first hurdle, one that everyone has to clear. I am still on the road to mastering the art of working with encaustic. Even after mastery, there will be more to learn. True artists are always learning, but of the seven steps to mastery (innocence, exposure, apprentice, practitioner, journeyman, master, and teacher), I would say I’m somewhere between practitioner and journeyman. My greatest struggle is with the inner critic that tries to sabotage and questions whether I am a true artist but my love for art is the fuel that gets me through it. Once you have the courage not to listen…wonderful things do start to happen.

A close second (to the inner critic) is the unhelpful criticism of a few trolls. At first, I took their criticisms personally. Thankfully I have learned that my work may not speak to everyone. They have every right to their opinions. I don’t have to let what they say cripple me, especially since what they are saying isn’t constructive. I’ve come a long way in this area, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting.

Finally, it has been a struggle to learn how to deal with constructive criticism. Particularly, how to differentiate between what advice I need to take my art to the next level and what advice does not apply to me. I have had a well-meaning, smart artist tell me to scrap what I am doing and paint like the old masters. The reason: because no one paints like that anymore. For a while, I seriously considered this suggestion because he was an established artist, someone I looked up to. But while this advice may, or may not, have helped get him where is he today, for my work, my voice, it wouldn’t. Ultimately I went on my way, a little birdie leaving the nest to find my own way.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Victoria Pierson Fine Art – what should we know?
I relish telling people that I am an encaustic artist. When I say that most people’s faced tighten up into a puzzled look. This always leads to the question, “What is that?” Which gives me the opportunity to go into the history of encaustic and how I use it today.

My quick primer goes something like this: Encaustic (from the Greek enkaustikos) means “to burn in or fuse.” It was first practiced by Greek artists dating back to 5th century B.C. Encaustic is also the oldest known pigment binder (before oil paints). It combines molten wax, dry pigment, and tree resin. The best known ancient encaustic works is the Fayum funeral portraits. They were painted in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. by Greek painters in Egypt and look as vibrant and well preserved today as they did when they were painted centuries ago.

My studio is located in Katy, Texas. I use two hot griddles with different sized canisters on top that contain the wax in a variety of colors. It is kept at 200 degrees so that the wax remains in a liquid state. I use a natural hair paint brush to apply the wax to birch board panels. I also use a blow torch throughout the process to build and fuse the many layers of wax. As the wax hardens I will carve, scrap, and add organic matter (shellac) to help build a underplaying composition.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Just showing up in your studio to do art or to handle the business side of things. It doesn’t matter what it is….just show up. I am constantly going online researching or reading books on how to make my art and business better. I also research the internet for places to get my work seen…galleries, restaurants, juror shows, interior designers…Etc.

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