Asheville, NC

I was tickled pink to meet and have a studio visit with the lovely Cathy Nichols in the gorgeous mountain town of Asheville, NC. Cathy is an encaustic and mixed media artist who lives a colorful and creative life with her musician partner Jay and children. They were both so welcoming to me, my mom Maggie and family friend Monica when we came for our visit.

Cathy creates beautiful whimsical paintings in delicious colours and regularly shows her work across the United States. Though we were playing with encaustic during our visit, she is an accomplished mixed media artist and works with many other mediums as well. She is a Stencil Girl featured artist and we were able to play with some of her stencils during the visit. Cathy’s paintings invoke sense memories and always hint at a larger story. She is currently working on a book that will explore the connection between creativity and the art story telling that will be available in June 2017. 

As the weather was so hot and humid very little fusing was needed. Nature took take of that for us. We painted using R&F Paints and Enkaustikos waxes that had been pre-set up in harmonious colour palettes and by her good friend Melissa Moss. We also used the Encaustic Art “I ♥ Pastels” set that I had brought as a gift.

Her Stencil Girl stencils were very easy to use.

1. Make sure you have some wax on your painting and that it is warm to the touch.
2. Place your stencil down and lightly burnish it to the wax below to hold it in place.
3. Add your PanPastel or RF Pigment Stick to the area that you want to stencil.
4. Remove stencil.
5. Gently fuse.
6. If parts of the stencil did not come through or lifted off with the stencil, you can reapply the stencil and add more PanPastel or RF Pigment Stick or use your stylus to draw the missing part back in.

Cathy’s newest Stencil Girl stencil will be unveiled on August 15^th and it is gorgeous I can’t wait to order mine.

Here are the lovely stencils that were gifted to me from Cathy. Aren’t they beautiful? I just love them.

And here is the adorable little 6x6” painting "Setting Sail" I bought from her. So sweet. I just love her sense of color.

In part two, I visit Fleta Monaghan and the 310 Art gallery.

http://www.joi-ful.com

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencils-cathy-nichols-s/1937.htm

https://www.etsy.com/shop/cathynichols

http://www.melissamossart.com/