Lyn Belisle
Lyn Belisle
Lyn Belisle is an award-winning teacher, artist, designer and writer who has taught a range of fine arts, humanities, English, and graphic design throughout her career. As an undergraduate, Lyn studied art at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She taught art in public schools after graduation and was a finalist for Texas Teacher of the Year in 2001 for her work with at-risk students. In 2004, she joined the faculty on the Computer Science Department at Trinity, teaching computer applications and design.
Lyn teaches mixed-media workshops at Lyn Belisle Studio in San Antonio which she founded in January of 2013. She also teaches nationally, most recently in Santa Fe, Provincetown, and Washington State. In response to the isolation brought on by the COVID crisis this past year, she has created a suite of popular online mixed-media workshops, many of the free, at Lyn Belisle Studio on Teachable.
She has written two articles for Cloth Paper Scissors magazine as well as a coloring book on the Folk Art of Mexico and has published four interactive eBooks. Her signature media are earthenware, paper, encaustic and fiber. Lyn is an active member of the San Antonio Art League, the Fiber Artists of San Antonio, the San Antonio Potters' Guild, the Encaustic Art institute, the International Encaustic Artists (Board Member), and The American Craft Council.
Lyn has had six one-person gallery exhibits since 2011, and recently retired from the faculty in the Computer Science Department at Trinity University to work full time at her studio. She has work at The Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, Marta Stafford Fine Art in Marble Falls, Texas, and in the San Antonio Art League & Museum. She is Immediate Past President of the San Antonio Art League.
Website: lynbelisle.com
Classes with Lyn Belisle
Surface Sampler
One of the most irresistible qualities of the encaustic process is the warm organic surface of the wax. It can be scored and scraped, rubbed and polished, melted and textured – and more.
In this mini-workshop, Lyn will guide you through four surface treatments for your encaustic work, including faux raku finish, rust and ivory, tortoiseshell, and India ink with metallic embellishments.
You can join your sampler panels into a standing screen structure, or you can use them as journal covers. The Surface Sampler techniques will expand your encaustic/mixed media repertoire and dazzle your creations with richness.
Myth and Mist: Fusing Image and Imagination in Wax
In this workshop, Lyn Belisle shows how to choose and combine compelling photographic elements to create layered encaustic collages, works that fascinate through implied stories and myths. The power of composition focuses the viewers eye on these frozen photographic images, creating an unbreakable, unforgettable connection. With Lyn’s gentle approach, you will learn how to create wax-veiled works that inspire new myths and stories, works to reflect your creative aesthetic and the choices that make your art unique.
Going Deeper:
Photography, collage, and encaustic have a natural affinity. Photographs capture an unrepeatable moment in a split second of time, a collection of light transmuted into a trace image. Collage reassembles these moments into a new reality, deepening the complexity of the story by adding intuitive inscriptions and ephemeral elements. Finally, encaustic takes the delicate interval between the liquid heat and the solid cold of layered wax, sealing the images in a veil of fixed and tangible translucency. When you discover how to use these three together, the result is a fragile but unchanging collection of marks, images, and wax that reflect a mythical moment frozen in the mist of time. That moment of Myth and Mist is endlessly engaging, like a mayflower in amber.
In the process of exploring these mythical, mystical collages you will learn about:
Coloring – mythical colors of ice, snow, ivory, ash, bone, bark, and shadow
Choosing – sources and considerations for choosing photographic elements, collage ephemera, and expressive marks
Composing – three secrets to powerful viewer engagement
Capturing – layers of beeswax, inks, metallics, and pigment to seal the mythical story images
“All my art reflects my fascination for shards from the circle of time - photo transfers, spirits and veils, those wonderful clues seen out of the corner of the eye, slipping just beyond clarity. While I work intensively in clay, paper and fiber, it’s collage that I return to when I need to explore what is intangible. Putting images together through instinct and serendipity always opens a new story for me, one that I can follow down many paths in many media. And the misty translucence of encaustic medium and beeswax is the perfect metaphor to enhance these very personal visual juxtapositions. I hope you’ll join me in this class. It will serve you well in your own art practice, whether you are a beginner or an expert in the field of encaustic.”
