Michele Randall

Michele Randall is an American artist. She has lived on the East Coast most of her life, growing up near her family’s three generation farm. Her work is inspired by her industrious female ancestors, her natural surroundings, and her love of travel. 

Trained as a printmaker, Michele became enamored with encaustic when she sought an alternative method to display her works on paper. This led to a deep investigation of layered wax and imagery. Michele has worked with encaustic for over a decade, incorporating the carving and pattern-making techniques she honed as a woodblock artist. 

In equal measure Michele has a love of cyanotype, a camera-less photography process. This technique creates deep indigo prints using the sun and water to develop the images. The nostalgic imagery is a perfect companion to encaustic.

Michele has a BS and an MFA from Penn State University. She has taught in the art department at Penn State and Susquehanna University. Currently, she works full time as an artist and a private workshop instructor in encaustic, cyanotype, and mixed media. Michele has an active teaching schedule and exhibits regularly in group and solo shows across the U.S. 

She was awarded a residency at Castle Hill, Truro Center for the Arts where she will further her work in encaustic and cyanotype, named as a finalist in The Woman United 2022 Award, and has received recognition in a number of juried shows throughout her career.

Class Details

Cyanotype and Wax Fusion

In this class, students will create cyanotype prints using a camera-less photography method; harnessing the sun to produce deep blue images. These prints will be used as the basis for encaustic mix-media pieces incorporating layers, texture and translucency.

Students will learn three techniques for cyanotype printing: how to print with photographic negatives, how to incorporate hand-drawn illustrations and how to create photograms. We will experiment with different types of papers and discuss toning methods to alter the color of the prints.

The prints will then be incorporated into a mixed media encaustic painting. Techniques using pan pastel, India-ink and other mark making tools will be covered.