The Gallery at Holy Cross is presenting the show “Painting with Wax,” featuring artists Robin Davenport, Libby Skamfer, Caroline Young and Greg Wright. 

The show will be on view until the end of October, and includes works that use wax in the painting process — oil and cold wax and encaustic. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and during services.

Davenport is an artist working in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She grew up in the tri-state area of Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, where her passion for art and the outdoors was born.

Davenport studied fine art with a concentration in drawing and painting at Western Carolina University, and spent a semester studying in London. After retiring from her law enforcement career in Asheville, she moved to Spartanburg in 2016.

Her work has included photography, drawing and acrylic painting, but she is currently working with a combination of traditional oil paints and cold wax medium (a blend of beeswax and mineral oil).

Skamfer lived in Italy for five years during the 1970s as an apprentice in a private art studio, learning to create precious jewelry pieces and assisting in creating models for large bronze sculptures. Upon returning to the states in 1975, she practiced the fine art of goldsmithing as a master goldsmith.

After over 20 years at the bench, she turned her attention to painting, pastels and also working with horses in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Recently, after experiencing a sudden and tremendous personal loss, life steered her toward a new form of expression using cold wax and oil medium, as well as mixed media.

Skamfer paints in her home studio in the woods in Columbus. She shares her space with her yellow Labrador, Rigel, who is her constant companion.

Young studied at a school of classical realism, and began pursuing photography. At a photography workshop, she discovered encaustics.

Young moved to Tryon three years ago from Southern Pines. She also does eco printing, making scarves and clothes, and frequently uses the eco-printed silk in her artwork.

She currently has artwork on permanent display at The Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe and in several shows there.

Wright was born in Sandersville, Georgia, and attended architecture school in Atlanta. He now lives in Tryon.

In a long search for a medium that captivated him, he discovered encaustic painting, he said.

“From the first moments that I saw an encaustic exhibition, I became hooked, obsessed,” Wright said.

After working with encaustic painting for several years, he added painting with cold wax and oil paint to his artistic practice. 

– Submitted by Gregory Wright