Alicia Tormey

Alicia Tormey works in encaustic, an ancient painting medium primarily made of beeswax and tree resin. This wax-based material is difficult to manipulate and somewhat unpredictable which is precisely what captivates Tormey’s imagination and the spontaneity in creating with bee’s wax keeps her wondering what will happen next.

“As a painter, I’m driven by curiosity, passion and a deeply creative spirit. I am constantly experimenting in my studio and pushing the boundaries of my materials, and as a result, I have developed my own unique painting style and techniques. I prefer to work abstractly because it triggers a creative response in the mind. Every work of art becomes personalized to each viewer through a phenomenon known as Pareidolia where you see elements and forms that aren’t actually there much like cloud gazing”

Nearly four decades of living in the Pacific Northwest, coupled with a lifelong fascination of science and nature, continues to heavily influence and inform Tormey’s work and as a painter, to conjure, capture and express the spontaneity and unpredictability of the natural world.