Inspirational Working with Purpose

Working with Purpose

Kelcie Bryant-Duguid

My art by practice is multi-disciplinary with the primary focus lying in the territories of encaustic mixed media and textiles. I was introduced to encaustics in 2012. The first works I made were in a series of week-long encaustic masterclasses held annually with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch in Australia. The works were made on small panels and were a response to personal and tragic happenings to my extended family. There was something about this medium that allowed me to express parts of myself that were so personal, private, and painful. The alchemy in expressing my thoughts and emotions with the medium enabled me to translate how I felt in a most profound way.

I have been described as an “encaustic artist working with purpose outside the conventional wax process.”

In my art practice I make work that gives voice to broader community and societal issues that are of importance to me. It is not so much that I choose to make a certain work; it is more that I am compelled to make the work. I am interested in language and how it is used to communicate and shape public sentiment. I think it is important to question and observe and think about what we are being told, how the message is communicated, and who benefits. The personal is political. Words matter. For these reasons, I make the work I do.

Queue Jumpers addresses the political language used in the public discourse surrounding refugees in Australia. Made in 2014, it is unfortunately as relevant today as it was then. This is one of the first artworks I made that featured text and the importance of language as a communication tool.

Queue Jumpers, Encaustic mixed media on board, 19.5 x 21.3 x 1.4 in

Using a pyrography burning tool to create the text and barbed wire imagery on the board, I sought to mimic the appearance of a branding-iron mark on livestock. An open flame was used to scorch and burn the board. A screen print of stacked boats on gauzy muslin fabric was embedded in encaustic wax.

I have always been sensitive to language. Language is often at the core of the political and social works I produce.

Bubbles in the Water Encaustic mixed media on board 32.3 x 25.2 x 1.4 in

Bubbles in the Water

Environmental issues are explored in my practice and are also a feature of my textile-based works. The efect of coal mining and fracking on our water supply is a recurrent theme. This work was made in response to Australia’s largest gas producer being found guilty of lying six years ago about fugitive gas leaks in a local river system that feeds into the water catchment for Sydney. The power of mining companies has only increased during this time. The work looks at the contaminants in our water supply that are attributed to mining that make it unfit to drink and comments on the many billions of litres each year that mining drains from the water supply.

Bubbles in the Water began with text. It consists of wax layers, embedded with stitched teabags and other elements, color, and design detail that were added over the wax with Sumi ink and pan pastels. Sgrafto and accretion techniques are also employed in the work.

Abundance

Aesthetically pleasing, Abundance draws you in. A seemingly innocuous title, it is named in a manner that is at first inviting, but then under closer observation, is revealed to be descriptive of something more sinister.

The work is mixed media in nature — a flower garden of bright red geraniums, wildflowers, and blooms cover the large multipaneled work. Woodblock and lino prints on rice paper, illustrations on book pages, sketches on teabags, Batik techniques of text written with a tjanting tool, and illustrated Californian poppies on crimson-dyed silk are embedded in the work.

This painting was inspired by Rosie Batty, who was named Australian of the Year in 2015, and the significant conversation she started surrounding domestic violence.

Abundance, Encaustic mixed media triptych on board, 25.2 x 96.9 x 1.4 in

Abundance began as a diptych and is now a triptych, but could easily be comprised of many more panels representing the unchanged statistic of one woman per week that is murdered at the hands of an intimate partner.

Birds and Banksias no.3, Encaustic mixed media, 19.5 x 21.26 x 1.4 in

My work oscillates between that of witness to one of hope. There is a need for me to explore both aspects of my practice for my own wellbeing. Some of the subject matter that I explore in my work is very heavy and can be all-consuming. I have found that in order to be able to create these works, I must be outward looking and hopeful. I look to my immediate environment and celebrate those small, precious moments that bring a smile, are calming, and grounding.

Finding Joy, a series of abstract colorful paintings, documents a personal journey of rediscovery.

The works seek to acknowledge the positive, the glimmers of hope, and the small victories each day brings. Joy is a state of mind and an orientation of the heart. It is what makes life beautiful. It is something deep within and it does not dissipate quickly. But sometimes in life when things are challenging, we must search very hard to find it once again. These works were painted at such a time in my life. This is the alchemy of working in encaustic. These themes were revisited during lockdown, and after the summer bushfires in Australia, with bird and bush imagery being adopted in more recent works.

Birds and Banksias no.8, Encaustic mixed media, 19.5 x 21.26 x 1.4 in

Conversation I, Encaustic mixed media diptych on board, 32.3 x 48 x 1.4 in

Conversation II, Encaustic mixed media diptych on board, 32.3 x 48 x 1.4 in

About the Author

Kelcie Bryant-Duguid is an Australian multidisciplinary artist, who began working in encaustics after a week-long Introduction to Encaustics workshop with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch in 2012. She was immediately hooked. She returned the following year for another week of encaustic masterclass and, later with some of the other artists in attendance, had a “playdate” exploring encaustic in sculpture. In 2014, she attended EncaustiCamp AU, where she expanded her encaustic repertoire to include book forms, textile applications, and monotype with U.S. tutors Michelle Belto, Sue Stover, and Judy Wise.

With a background in textiles, Kelcie embraces the scope that encaustic ofers to her art-making practice.

Kelcie has exhibited in solo exhibitions in local and interstate galleries and her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions. As an educator and facilitator, she has coordinated installations and public art projects with councils and schools in addition to teaching adult education classes.

A recent highlight was having her Finding Joy series of abstract works alongside her When I was a Bird series of encaustic paintings featured at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick as part of their exhibition program.

Kelcie lives and works from her studio on the outskirts of Sydney.

Photo by Moira Vella Photography

You can view Kelcie’s work at

kelciebryantduguid.weebly.com www.instagram.com/kelciebryantduguid www.facebook.com/kelciebryantduguidartist