BRADFORD, Pa. – “Searching for Beauty in a Broken World,” an art exhibition by local artist Merriam Ryding will open at noon Jan. 10 at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
The exhibition of encaustic landscape paintings will take place in the KOA Art Gallery in Blaisdell Hall through Jan. 24. The free opening will feature a gallery talk, encaustic demonstration and a light lunch.
Encaustic is an ancient technique used by the Egyptians and ancient Romans that suspends pigments in hot wax.
“I find that this medium is very receptive to layering,” Ryding said. “I enjoy embedding thin papers, and layer with opaque and translucent hot wax.”
She makes her own combination of beeswax and resin and mixes the colors, using both raw and manufactured pure pigments.
“Lately, I’ve been driven by the theme ‘Searching for Beauty in a Broken World,” Ryding said. “These paintings are abstract or impressionistic landscapes and townscapes that find the light in cracks of brokenness and also highlight those places of respite needed for renewal.”
In addition to her studio work, Ryding is an instructor at Pitt-Bradford and directs the local artists’ cooperative ArtWorks on the Summit in Kane. She has shown regionally and with the Encaustic Art Institute in Santa Fe, N.M.
In addition to working with encaustic, Ryding creates – primarily landscapes – in collage, with woodcuts and through other processes.
For more information or to see her work, visit www.mrydingartworks.com.
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