Dark Lush (landscape), encaustic monotype and mixed media on Stonehenge black

Kaylee Dalton’s uses a combination of printmaking, collage, painting, and encaustic to address the expressive nature of, well --- nature. Dalton’s layered, gestural approach to image-making results in artworks that are as lush as the plant growths that they reference.

Lush No. 12 (landscape), encaustic monotype and mixed media on Rives BFK

For all the frantic movement and densely colored patterns present in Dalton’s work, I find that the aspect that really grounds each image is the artist’s use of negative space. Her collages never cover the entire substrate, but rather seem to pool or collect in a certain quadrant, radiating upward and outward but never quite stretching to edge of the rectangular surface. In this way, each composition takes on a sense of wholeness, like the entire layered mass of paint and paper is one independent object.

The artist builds up her images on both white or off-white neutrals, and pure black. When seen as a series, this alternating choice lends an interesting contrast between the images, almost like some of them depict plant life as seen at night and others during the day.

Lush No. 17 (landscape), encaustic monotype and mixed media collage on Rives BFK