H.D. Mott,
"Pink Parakeet"

“NEW WORKS IN WAX”

Inverness artist, Hannah Mott, has never been hemmed in by a traditional approach to art.  In Mott’s current show, the viewer can move easily from the personal, to the universal aspects of the human experiences we all share, and come away with a tender reminder that what matters most is the awareness that our pasts and futures are deeply interwoven into our present understanding of who we are.

In her current show, “New Works in Wax”, Mott uses the building up and scraping away of the many layers of pigmented wax to evoke the floating quality of the passage of time.  In her painting, MUSIC NOW, she continues her work on the themes begun in her RECOLLECTION series, where old photographs and letters are included to create complex images as subtle echoes of past eras and sensibilities.

In another painting, OVER TIME, Mott delves further into her exploration of how we reshape our familial myths through the generations by adding a recognition of the genetic component undeniably linking us to our ancestors.

Over the last thirty years, Mott’s artwork has contained a sense of discovery and a pushing of the boundaries both through her unique perspectives and her use of materials.  As a printmaker at the California College of Art in Oakland, she learned the exacting techniques required of her major.  Soon, however, Mott felt constrained by the size of the press determining the size of her prints.  She branched out into large acrylic paintings and mixed media before studying the ancient technique of encaustic painting five years ago.

Encaustic is a beeswax-based paint that is kept molten on a heated palette.  The word “encaustic” comes from the Greek meaning “to burn in” referring to the process of fusing layers of paint with heat.  Mott is attracted to both the unpredictable nature of the encaustic paints in their fluid state, as well as the timeless nature of the paints once they are hardened to a colorfast, satiny surface.

Call to Artists