Marie Banville
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I am interested in using iconic human and animal archetypes and symbols from nature that have a shared meaning for people of the northern cultures – both now and throughout history. The materials I work with have a direct connection with nature and help me to explore these concepts.

I use encaustic. I melt pure beeswax and combine it with plant resins and raw pigments to create bright luminous colours.

There are many things I love about using encaustic. It is possible to create many different textures using wax, from smooth as glass to rough and pitted and scratched. Colour and collage elements can be embedded within thin layers of pigmented and clear beeswax. Heat fuses and transforms each layer. More encaustic paint, oil pastel and thin layers of wax can be added. This work of layering is an essential part of the meaning of the final painting. The subtle play of transparency and opacity of the image below the surface refers to the iconic meaning of the images. What you perceive on the surface is only the evident – remember that a deeper meaning lies below the face.

Many of my paintings depict local animals – the raven, the elk, the bear and the wolf. These animals are totemic in many cultures and we read human qualities into these animals when we see them as archetypes rather than individual creatures.

The human eye peering out of some of the animal icons represents the human desire to connect with nature and to possess the qualities that are embodied by each animal, the desire to draw on that deeper union and wisdom that we sense we have lost. Through my art I try to express the necessity to immerse ourselves in nature and by connecting with natural materials and wild creatures gain back some of our connection and concern for this earth and the beings we share it with.