Seasonal changes, juxtapositions and metamorphoses that surround me in every day life are my inspiration. Everything grows and changes with time, whether it's vegetative, spiritual, emotional or relational. Most of my paintings have their beginnings here. A moment captured.

I use the technique of encaustic painting because it provides beautifully rich colors and is versatile enough to allow for collage, fine etching or rough carving to be done all in one composition. I like the organic feel of encaustic and like to incorporate other organic materials into my paintings such as: rice paper, leaves, seeds, coffee grounds, silk, tar, etc.

Each painting is started by melting beeswax and damar resin on a hot pallet and then adding dry pigments to the wax medium. I then literally paint the hot wax onto birch wood panels, one layer, or stroke, at a time. Each individual layer of wax is fused to the previous layer using a propane torch. Some paintings can have ten or more layers of wax, which results in a fantastic quality of depth and texture in a composition.

Susanne Friedman has studied the technique of encaustic painting and sculptural welding at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, under Jef Gunn, Bill Baber and Mark Rudis, respectively.

Her background is in environmental biology and she received her Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington. When not painting, Susanne is a practicing urban designer and currently resides in Seattle.