It all starts with a single photograph and leads to an abstract piece of art not easily comparable to much else seen on a gallery wall.

For Port Townsend encaustic artist Terianne Stratton, the process of creating deep abstract work has been honed to near perfection, but still an unpredictable adventure each time.

"I like the process to lead me in a forward direction, so I'm not completely in control," Stratton said. "It's a delicate dance."

Stratton and more than 40 of her peers in the Port Townsend art community will be unique parts of a whole during the annual Northwind Arts Center Studio Tour, slated for Aug. 18 and 19.

Spread around Port Townsend, artists will open their studios for the public to visit and talk about their individual process and life in the field.

WAX ON

Among the pack of painters, sculptors, watercolorists and woodworkers, Stratton stands alone as an encaustic painter. Hot wax is the champion of her works, binding everything together into one single abstract piece.

Her first step comes far before getting the wax hot enough to spread on the canvas. It begins with a photograph she takes on her iPhone. Anything from a wall of graffiti to the inside of her window going through a carwash is used as the base. Using all the tools iOS has available, Stratton can get the picture just right before she has it printed using archival inks and mounted on pre-made wooden frames.

"I use abstract backgrounds that are more or less my jumping off point," said Stratton. "It gives me a sort of a point to start from for composition and color,"

she said.

Other like artists employ a photo-encaustic technique, she explained, as their photographs to augment it while preserving the image.

"I use the photograph a little differently," she said. "I use it as painters use an underpainting."

She mounts her chosen image to a board then manipulates it using color pencil or adding any kind of pigment that calls for it.

It is then Stratton applies layers of wax. An electric griddle is used as her painter palette of sorts, heating up cans of wax so they are at hand when ready. Getting even more creative for a moment's notice, Stratton has, close by, a torch, iron or electric heat gun to spread the hues.

She paints it on the canvas and uses one of the heat sources to make it even, allowing it to spread and absorb throughout. While applying, she can embed other collage elements, such as paper and pigment.

As wax is easily manipulated once cooled, Stratton can etch textures using scratch marks or adding a transfer whether they are from old maps, stencils or cards she has collected over the years. This part is the final stage before she can call it complete.

Throughout each step, Stratton strives to incorporate pieces from the natural world or gathering information from them on an emotional or philosophical level, "so my pieces have some sense of being organic," she said.

BACKGROUND IN IMAGE

With as many mediums as Stratton's includes, it is appropriate her background is in printmaking and photography.

"I found a way to incorporate all the things that I love into this one two-dimensional form," she said.

Though unique as it may appear to one newcomer to art, the techniques stretches back to around 100 A.D. by the Egyptians in their Fayum mummy portraits. Stratton said the Greeks used wax on their sailing ships for protection from the water and wind, as well as decoration to make them more fierce.

What caught Stratton's attention is the work of modern artist Jasper Johns when she saw his work in New York City.

"I thought the surfaces were beautiful and luscious. I loved the transparency of the medium that lets you build up layers," she said.

It wasn't until she moved to Seattle six years ago when she truly dove into it, signing up courses to hone her skills.

"It lends itself to collage," Stratton said about the intrinsic sticky nature of wax.

The imagery is abstract, Stratton, herself, not knowing where the canvas will end up at the end of her process.

With ambitions outside of her budget as a college graduate, Stratton looked to a photography major. That interest has not waned.

"I never got away from the printed image," she said about her time as a graduate in printmaking, as she utilizes photography as the foundation for her works.

MOVING FORWARD

She looks to break into the third dimension by using clay. This artwork is in its primitive stage, as she took a class recently through the Port Townsend School of the Arts at the Wilderbee Farm ceramic studio. Her undergraduate school gave her base to work with clay again, learning how to build, fire and prepare it to receive the wax.

As a member of the Northwinds Arts Center, Stratton's work is displayed in the back of its gallery. Though dedicated to her art, Stratton also expresses through her band Stringology, gypsy acoustic jazz, traveling gig to gig on the Olympic Peninsula.

"This town has a lot of creative, wonderful artists. I'm very inspired here," she said.

The tour is one of her way to get more involved in the art community Port Townsend has in wealth. This is her first year taking part, though taking the tour herself in prior years.

"To be able to have the opportunity to go to an artist studio, see how they work and talk to them one on one and make art more person, helps the public feel that art is more accessible," she said.

Like her fellow artists, who work tirelessly to put themselves on canvas, sculpture or any other medium, the need to create persists.

"It's a real vital part of my nature," she said.

Stratton's home studio will not be open for the studio tour, but will be in Mary O'Shaughnessy's at 927 Benton St.

"I found a way to incorporate all the things that I love into this one twodimensional form."

Terianne Stratton

Port Townsend Artist