March 4 - 27, 2022

Public Opening: Sunday, March 6, 3 - 5 pm

Another Look on the Bright Side by Cookie Kerxton

Abstract Artist Turns to Ancient Technique

Cookie Kerxton is a modern artist--she has been creating Abstract art for 28 years. But recently she has discovered an ancient technique that allows her to express herself in new ways: painting with cold wax.

Artists have been incorporating beeswax into their work for centuries, according to the Cold Wax Academy, but they seldom mentioned it, so the public has been unaware of the practice. Kerxton began experimenting with cold wax a few years ago, concentrating on abstractions of color, design and shape. Since then, cold wax has become her principal medium.

Kerxton first exhibited her cold wax pieces in a virtual show at Touchstone Gallery in September, 2020. The March show, “Another Look at the Bright Side,” will feature recent works in this medium as well as monotypes and acrylics.

Cold wax painting, Kerxton explains, is done with equal parts of oil paint and cold wax, which is similar to Spry or Crisco in texture. She applies many layers on a hard surface using a squeegee or brayer, adds textures and then more layers, and finally scratches through the layers to reveal colors below.

Kerxton’s art is inspired by patterns and shapes she has seen while traveling to Morocco, Spain, Portugal and many other places on sketching trips with other artists. “Bright colors,” she notes, pervade my work and make me happy.” She hopes that viewers have the same response, and she has purposely left most of her pieces untitled so that viewers can interpret the works on their own.

Kerxton has long seen art as a way not only of expressing herself but of helping others. Before studying abstract painting, she had a 26-year career teaching arts and crafts in an in-patient psychiatric unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital. After a bout with vocal cord cancer in 2008, she saw the need to create a fund to help other patients with head and neck cancer who had financial challenges and decided to use art as a way of raising money for this purpose.

To launch her non-profit, 9114HNC (Help for Head and Neck Cancer), Kerxton enlisted other artists to convert radiation masks, which are used for head and neck cancer patients, into works of art to be auctioned off at a series of Courage Unmasked events. Three were held in 2009, 2012 and 2015, and another is planned for late spring of this year. These unique designs show what artists, all starting with the same mask, but using different art techniques, can create. They may be viewed on the websites: courageunmasked.org or 9114HNC.org. All proceeds from the sale of Kerxton’s art go to the fund.

Image: Sphere I by Cookie Kerxton Monotype 29 1/2” x 38 1/2”

Masks are required inside the gallery. Open hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-5.