Elise Wagner, a painter, printmaker, educator, and innovator, currently resides on the North Coast of Oregon in Astoria, having originally hailed from Jersey City, New Jersey. Since 1986, she has called Oregon her home, where her creative journey has evolved into a distinctive fusion of artistic expression, spiritual exploration, and a profound interest in various scientific disciplines. Elise's work seamlessly integrates her fascination with physics, astronomy, geology, cartography, and meteorology, exploring their connections to evolving technologies and the environment.

Notable for her artistic contributions, Elise has garnered recognition, including the prestigious 2015-16 Pollock Krasner Foundation Award, several regional awards, and grants from esteemed institutions such as the Ford Family Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Her art graces galleries in Washington D.C., Astoria, New York, Pam Springs, and Seattle. The past year marks a particularly successful period for Elise, with a solo exhibition, "Tipping Points," at Frederick Holmes & Company in Seattle, followed by a three-person exhibition at Alex Ferrone Gallery in Cutchogue, New York, and her solo exhibition at Imogen Gallery in Astoria, Oregon.

Elise's artistic footprint extends into corporate and private collections throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Beyond her artistic endeavors, she is a dedicated educator, sought after internationally to teach and present encaustic painting and printmaking at conferences and institutions. Currently, Elise imparts her knowledge through semi-private workshops.

Her artistic passion ignited early in life, fueled by parental and teacher encouragement. Her Italian grandfather, a winemaker and painter, played a pivotal role in nurturing her talents. Despite a teenage car accident altering her dream of becoming a professional dancer, Elise's survival became an enduring source of inspiration for her artistic journey.

In her studio, Elise explores the convergence of contemporary discovery and nature, infusing elements of the sublime, the unknown, and the celestial. Her paintings draw inspiration from satellite and drone technology, planetary movement, navigation, mapping, ancient symbols, and alchemy. She views her work as a reflection of her life experiences and an exploration of how technology shapes humanity. An avid runner, Elise incorporates meditation and yoga into her studio practice, deeming them integral to manifesting and creating new artwork.

While she identifies as a city enthusiast, Elise's move to Portland allowed her to appreciate the geology and natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Armed with a Bachelor of Science degree with a minor in Art History from Portland State University, she developed a fascination with color chemistry and art materials while working at the Gamblin Artist's Colors factory. Elise discovered encaustic painting during college, teaching herself the technique in her Northeast Portland studio during an era when information on the subject was scarce.

Encaustic painting captivated Elise with its translucency, dimensionality, quick drying time, and versatility with other mediums. In 2003, she launched Wagner Encaustics, her boutique line of encaustic paints, after creating her unique colors. Pioneering encaustic collagraph printmaking, she blended encaustic painting with intaglio printmaking techniques, developing a specially formulated white wax for easy release. Since 1996, Elise has shared her passion and knowledge by teaching encaustic painting and printmaking in her local community and across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

In 2022, Elise embraced the North Coast of Oregon as her new home, sharing her space with her companions, Willomina the dog and Rothko the cat. Notably, she shares her birthday with the renowned artist Mark Rothko, and her college studio occupies the same building where Rothko attended elementary school, now part of the PSU campus in Portland.

In her studio, Elise is most interested in interpreting contemporary discovery and combining it with nature, the sublime, the unknown and the celestial. Many of her paintings derive from a fascination with satellite and drone technology, planetary movement, navigation, mapping, ancient symbols and alchemy. Elise creates work as an expression of her own life experience and interest in how these technologies have shaped humanity and continue to inform us today. An avid runner, Elise has been practicing meditation and yoga for several years and considers her physical and spiritual practices an integral part of her studio practice in manifesting and deriving new work.

A city girl at heart, when Elise moved to Portland as a young adult, she was captivated by the geology and majestic beauty of the Pacific Northwest. This led her to obtain a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Art History at Portland State University. While studying drawing, painting, and printmaking there, Elise worked as a color chart painter at the Gamblin Artist’s Colors factory. It was there that a “materials girl” was born. It is no wonder, having already been hooked on color chemistry and the alchemy of art materials, that upon witnessing a demonstration of something called “encaustic painting” while still in college, Elise proceeded to teach herself in her Northeast Portland storefront studio. With no information about the medium, other than references here and there in artist materials books of different formulas, Elise was determined to teach herself encaustic in the pre-internet world of the early 1990s, embarking on a trial-and-error adventure before YouTube, Facebook, conferences, books or workshops were available on the subject.

Elise in her Northeast Portland storefront studio, 1994

As an art student at the time, Elise was creating large montage and heavy collage abstract oil paintings. She was growing impatient with the drying time of oil paint, and was on the hunt for a medium that would be quick-drying, transparent and adhesive. After trying several different approaches with acrylic mediums, roplex, epoxy, joint compound and polyurethane resins, she was completely seduced by encaustic for its translucency, dimensionality, quick drying time and overall versatility with other mediums. Later, with her arsenal of knowledge and materials, she began making her own encaustic colors and, in 2003, launched a small boutique line of encaustic paints, Wagner Encaustics.

In 2003, Elise began to experiment with turning her flat wood encaustic panels into collagraph printing plates, and innovated encaustic collagraph printmaking, which marries the techniques of encaustic painting with those of intaglio printmaking. Soy and honey based Akua inks are used on the encaustic collagraph plate to create a perfect combination for prints on paper. Wagner Encaustics became Wagner Encaustic Collagraph White when Elise developed a white wax that is specially formulated to release easily from the paper when collagraph printing. Learn more about Encaustic and Collagraph here. You can purchase the wax Elise hand makes here.

Back in 1996, Elise was excited to share the encaustic medium with her local community and she first began teaching encaustic painting at Art Media, a former art supply store in Portland. Since then she has been teaching encaustic painting and printmaking in her studio, and at institutions throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico. See Teaching Background for more.

Making the Pacific Northwest her home base has continually nurtured her lifelong creative pursuits. In 2022, Elise relocated to the north Oregon Coast where she now lives and works with her dog Willomina and her cat Rothko.

Biography

Teaching Background & Student Testimonials

Irons