Rehoboth Beach Municipal Building
Second Floor Atrium 

Now through April 16, 2023

In addition to the Rehoboth Art League’s continuing display of it’s member’s artwork at the Rehoboth Beach City Hall, RAL welcomes Cathy Leaycraft as it’s featured artist now through April 16, 2023. 

Cathy was born in New York City. Her mother frequently took her to Galleries and Art Museums as she was growing up and her paternal grandmother was a painter with a home and studio in Woodstock, NY. Ms. Leaycraft’s artistic carrier has evolved in phases; the use of her photographs with color Xerox machines, photo collage using Photoshop, reflected glass sphere images, and currently, the use of encaustic with photographs. About five years ago she began experimenting with this hot wax medium. “Encaustic gives my photographs the texture and depth I have long admired in paintings. In addition, I can manipulate the surface with traditional and non-traditional objects, like brushes, hammers, dental tools etc. I can also scrape out areas revealing more of the photograph underneath.”

The process:

A mixture of beeswax and damar resin is heated to about 200 degrees and applied to a surface. In Leaycraft’s case, the surface is one of her photographs printed on watercolor paper and mounted on board. After this layer of wax cools, it is “fixed” by reheating the wax with a heat gun. Additional layers are added in a similar fashion. Leaycraft uses three or four layers before making textural patterns in the wax surface, carving out elements, or adding pastel pigments. Ms. Leaycraft’s work is held in many private and public collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and MOMA. She has exhibited widely and received grants and awards including a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award.

Image credit: “Planetary Lines: Earth #18-72-3000” encaustic and photograph by Cathy Leaycraft