J.L. Fashempour

JL Fashempour

Fashempour has always been an artist and designer.  She attended The Cooper School of Art in Cleveland while in High School and The Cleveland Institute of Art after High School.  With a long and diversified career in commercial art, photography, and design.  She was an illustrator and designer for the Kennedy Mint, Art Director at Dressage Magazine, created package design and corporate identity for Waxman Industries, wrote, photographed and produced slide programs for Capitol Supply, taught commercial art and photography at the Medina County Career Center and was Interior Designer for Suburban Homes.  A medaled equestrian, she and her husband own and operate “Ledge Hollow Stable” a premier boarding and training facility, and “Watchbear Newfoundlands” breeding champion purebred Newfoundland dogs for over 40 years.

With an eclectic taste in subject matter and mediums, she paints or draws what she is intrigued by.  She is drawn to animals and scenes of rural America, sometimes realistic, sometimes impressionistic, always interesting with an abundance of rich color and texture.  The most captivating art form she employs is one that is both archaic and modern. Encaustic art is an ancient technique first used by the Greeks.  Later it became popularized as a form of expressionism.  Extensive and time-consuming, this difficult process involves countless hours of hard work and originality.  Each of Fashempour’s pieces stands entirely on their own.  No two pieces are alike.  Favorite subjects in her work include forest paths, towering buildings, and collapsed structures.  While these works are usually shrouded with darker undertones, Fashempour also creates grassy plains and untamed fields with cheerful tones of green and blue.

Encaustic is a Greek word meaning “to heat or burn in” (enkaustikos)

Heat is used throughout the process, from melting the beeswax and varnish, to fusing the layers of wax. Encaustic consists of natural beeswax and dammar resin (crystallized tree sap). The medium can be used alone for its transparency, adhesive qualities or used pigmented. Pigments may be added to the medium or purchased colored with traditional artist pigments. The medium is melted and applied with a brush or any tool the artist wishes to create from. Each layer is then reheated to fuse it to the previous layer.

Encaustic Painting Workshop