Arts
Read More ›
The Makers: Leslie Stoner’s Brilliant Encaustic Paintings
Meet the dynamic encaustic artist whose main tools include a blowtorch and a bread pan
Leslie Stoner is holding a blowtorch in one hand while we chat in her Green Lake studio. She’s spraying the torch across the surface of one of her paintings and explaining her process: how the flame heats the wax and fuses it, pushes it down or smooths it out in different ways.
As an encaustic painter—encaustic being an art form whose main medium is heated wax—Stoner utilizes a unique set of tools. In addition to her several blowtorches (which come in a few different sizes), she also uses razor blades, various palette knives, pottery tools and an assortment of baking tins.
Stoner spent her childhood years on a mink farm in northwest Montana. She moved to Seattle in 1997. From 2002 until 2006 she attended Cornish College of the Arts, where she earned a degree in painting and photography.
She first tried encaustic painting in 2005, while she was managing the studio of Betsy Eby, another local encaustic artist and one of Stoner’s early influences. Stoner’s work now shows at Abermeyer + Wood Fine Art in downtown, the Seattle Art Museum sales and rental gallery, and Friesen Gallery in Sun Valley.
Follow Us
Rearview Mirror: Crocodile Guardians, Late-Summer Potato Salad, and a Halloween Costume Hunt
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
COOKING WITH ASTER PANTRY A few leaves turn, my inbox fills with fall festival pitches and cozy brunch menus, and suddenly I want to stay home with a glass of wine and cook. I love this nesting season, though I’m not ready to give up summer produce. Earlier this year, I wrote about Seattle chefs…
WALKDONTRUN Returns This Saturday, Turning Downtown Seattle Into a Sprawling Art Show
In its second year, the free festival brings 200-plus artists to a 20-block route September 19, with a secret garden and a former 7-Eleven stocked with art.
Most walks through downtown Seattle involve trying to get somewhere. On September 19, the crosswalk itself might be the reason to stop. Heap Troupe will turn a four-way crossing into a performance, one of dozens of encounters planned for this year’s WALKDONTRUN. The free, all-ages art walk stretches across more than 20 blocks. From 11…
At Two Dot Schoolhouse, Ruth Marie Tomlinson Builds an Artistic Community
For nearly 20 years, the Seattle artist and her husband have welcomed artists, writers, and musicians to a historic Montana schoolhouse. Now they’re searching for its next stewards.
At her solo exhibition last year at The Vestibule, Seattle artist Ruth Marie Tomlinson presented a new series of work inspired by her close readings of British nature writer J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine and Icelandic author Sjón’s The Blue Fox. As if on sheets torn from a sketchbook, her pages included excerpts and outtakes of…
Rearview Mirror: Seahawks Off the Field, Seattle on the Board, and Smoked Oysters
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
HOOKED ON KNOCKS Admittedly, I am late to this one. The Seahawks’ first season of Hard Knocks, the HBO series that follows NFL teams through training camp, premiered in August, but until last week, I had never heard of it. To be honest, my football knowledge starts with knowing what a touchdown is and doesn’t…