Smoke Scented Beaches, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 12 x 24 in. / 30.48 x 60.96 cm.

The Encaustic Landscape Expressions by Elizabeth Nook

February 8, 2024 Gavin Coates

Featured image: Smoke Scented Beaches, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 12 x 24 in. / 30.48 x 60.96 cm.

Elizabeth Nook’s encaustic paintings are a poetic blend of color and texture that resonate with the emotive forces of nature and memory.

Elizabeth Nook is an artist known for her encaustic paintings that evoke emotion through textured layers of pigmented wax, capturing the essence of nature and memory.

Her work, characterized by the ancient technique of encaustic painting, involves layering pigmented wax to create depth and luminosity that traditional paint mediums cannot achieve. This method gives her work a dreamlike quality, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.

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Hope, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 6 x 8 in. / 15.24 x 20.32 cm.

Hope (2023) is a small yet powerful piece that uses the encaustic medium to its fullest, conjuring a celestial landscape that seems to glow from within. Nook's use of blue and white creates a sense of calmness and infinity, the horizon line acting as the grounding force amidst the ethereal sky. It embodies the essence of hope itself—vast and enduring.

As If, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 6 x 6 in. / 15.24 x 15.24 cm.

As If (2023) presents a more grounded scene, where the earthy greens and soft grays suggest a field under a clouded sky. Nook’s technique creates a textured surface that is both tactile and visual, inviting the viewer to explore the layers of color and feeling. The encaustic wax captures the fleeting light of the landscape, a snapshot of a moment's quiet beauty.

Second Summer, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 6 x 6 in. / 15.24 x 15.24 cm.

Second Summer (2023) features the silhouettes of grasses against a soft, warm background, evoking the end of the summer when the light begins to wane. The encaustic layers give a three-dimensional effect, the grasses seeming to sway with an unseen breeze. It’s a reminder of time’s passage, and the beauty found in moments of transition.

Nook's trio of works, Hope, As If, and Second Summer, are each a window into the soulful experiences that landscapes evoke. Her paintings are not just seen but felt, the wax’s texture and the hues’ resonance working together to stir the viewer's emotions.

Elizabeth Nook’s encaustic paintings are more than visual art; they are tactile narratives that capture the whispers of the natural world. Each piece, with its unique emotional timbre, invites a contemplative engagement, urging the observer to feel the landscape's mood and the artist’s intention. Through her work, Nook proves that art can be a profound communicator of the intangible—hope, tranquility, and the bittersweet farewell to summer.

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Graced with Love, Elizabeth Nook, 2023, encaustic, 12 x 6 in. / 30.48 x 15.24 cm.