Elise Wagner

Elise Wagner is a painter, printmaker, educator and innovator. An east coast transplant from Jersey City, New Jersey, she has lived and worked in Portland, Oregon since 1986.

A lifelong artist, Elise began drawing and painting early in life. Her art teachers encouraged her to go to nearby museums in New York City where she first saw and became fascinated with the work of Monet, Seurat and Dali. A materials girl at heart, Elise had the opportunity to work at the Gamblin Artist's Colors factory where, as a color chart painter and later, product marketing manager, she got a thorough education in color and art materials. Color chemistry seeped into the defining aesthetic in Elise’s work which has evolved alongside her interests in various disciplines of science – physics, astronomy, geology, cartography and meteorology. Science and abstract art are defined as mystery, and Elise is continually curious about and negotiating this in her work.

Self taught in the encaustic, the medium lends itself well to Elise’s studio practice and creative aspirations. The various unique approaches she takes with the encaustic medium results in artwork rich with depth that is visually captivating and intellectually compelling. Working with the encaustic medium since the early 1990’s led Elise to innovate a way to print from the texture of her paintings and merge the techniques of encaustic painting with that of collagraph printmaking.

You can see Elise’s work in person at galleries in Washington D.C., Seattle, Houston and Astoria, Oregon. In 2022, she will be unveiling two solo exhibitions in Seattle and Astoria.

Website: elisewagner.com

Facebook: facebook.com/elisewagnerart

Instagram: @elisewagnerstudio

Vimeo: Elise Wagner Studio

Classes with Elise Wagner

Encaustic Collagraph Printmaking: Merging of Mediums

Learn how to print from the textures of wax!

Elise will guide you through her unique printmaking method that she innovated which brings together techniques characteristic to encaustic painting with that of collagraph printmaking. A collagraph is a collaged printing plate where typically various fabrics, organic material, string or flat objects are inked and printed from on paper. In this class, we replace the collage materials with white encaustic wax and create multiples that can vary in depth, color, paper, plate type and dimension. You will bring all you've learned with encaustic so far and be exposed to the magical and expansive world of print using Akua non-toxic soy and honey based intaglio inks. Elise will be using her Wagner Encaustic Collagraph White wax specially formulated and hand made by her for printmaking to release easily from the paper and a perfect match with the Akua Inks!