Demonstrations | YNF Collections

Regina Bernadette Quinn

Encaustics

After nearly three decades in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Regina now lives in New York’s Northern Catskills. A New York City native, she has spent her adult life up in the mountains which are a continuous source of inspiration for her work. Her paintings are rooted in her deep connection to the natural world and sense of stewardship for the fragile balance that allows life to exist and thrive on this planet.

Regina’s art career encompasses painting, photography, ceramics, printmaking, and theatrical painting. About 10 years ago, she was drawn to encaustics by their luminosity and subtlety, and once she started working in wax, she knew that encaustic was her medium—one that could give voice to her aesthetic, her sensibility, and her quiet personality. She now works almost exclusively in mixed media encaustics and shares her process through workshops, internationally.

Regina holds a Special Studies in Fine Arts degree from Trinity College where she received the Peyser Art Award, first prize and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Vermont. Regina teaches encaustic workshops internationally and serves on the Board of Directors of International Encaustic Artists. Her encaustic paintings, for which she has received numerous awards including the 2020 Faber Birren National Color Award, the Cooperstown Art Association’s Essential Art 2021 Grand Prize, and the Woodstock Art Association and Museum’s New Visions 2021 Award, have been displayed in galleries, art centers and museums across the United States and are included in the permanent collections of the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, in Brooklyn, NY, and the Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, NM.

Eileen Kennedy

Tempera

I love to draw. I love to tell stories. Egg tempera and silverpoint, my media of choice, help me to create artworks that combine both of these loves. Always a compulsive mark maker, I make thousands of marks to build form, tone and atmosphere. Some of my narratives come from memory or dreams. Others appear in my mind with no clue to their origin. I accept them as gifts.

While the ideas for my works can come to me in a flash of insight or spontaneity, their execution is the polar opposite. I begin with many drawings, sketches, and even doodles. Sometimes I hire models to pose. Other times I create figures out of my head. An 18 x 24" silverpoint drawing can take a month or more to complete, not including preliminary drawing. Egg tempera paintings of the same size take about 5 months, assuming I can put in 25 to 30 hours per week in the studio.

At some point along the way, I have to relinquish control and trust that the process will serve me well. Frequently, when a piece is about three quarters complete, I find myself in a panic--certain that all is lost. I take a deep breath and keep going. More layers. Because my use of color is intuitive, I never really know where the paint will take me and am frequently surprised at the end. I hope you will be, too.