International Workshops: Janise Yntema & Zijdelings

Artist Janise Yntema in front of one of her paintings.

R&F is fortunate to partner with a number of different artists around the world who teach with our materials. Janise Yntema is one of those instructors. As part of our ongoing international focus, we are pleased to bring you this spotlight.

Janise was born in New Jersey and attended Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League in New York. In 2018, she earned her master’s degree from the University of Kent’s Paris School of Arts and Culture. She has had solo exhibitions in New York and throughout the United States as well as London, Amsterdam, and Brussels. Her works are in the collections of several museums in Europe and the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018, Janise was awarded the International Encaustic Artists' La Vendéenne Award for recognition of outstanding contribution and advancement of encaustic. She works and lives in Brussels, Belgium and will be teaching at Zijdelings in The Netherlands in February.

Janise Yntema, The Five Fifteen, 47" x 42", encaustic and mixed media on panel, 2019

Please tell us a bit about yourself. What did you do before you began teaching?

I was fortunate to grow up near New York City and visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a child left lasting impressions that influenced my choice of career. I have mainly worked as a professional artist though I've often subsidized everything by working freelance in graphic design. Soon after graduating college, I was asked to join A.I.R. gallery in NYC and I had 3 solo shows with them. Since moving to London, I have shown continuously with Cadogan Contemporary.

Though I had been asked to teach over the years, it was not until I got my master's degree that I opened up to the idea of teaching.

Where is your studio? Please describe it. Do you teach out of your studio or at other locations?

I’ve had many studios and my favorites have been in old industrial buildings. My best was in DUMBO. Before the area was developed, I had a loft space over looking the Brooklyn Bridge. In London, I had a studio in the East End of Shore Ditch before that area became trendy. Because of perpetually being ‘moved out’ due to gentrification and the necessity of installing lighting and air extractors, I've worked in the ground floor space of my home for the most recent period. For large works, I miss the ease of an industrial open space, but I’ve found I save a lot of time with no commute. Though I've produced a massive amount of work here, I still consider this space temporary and I am always on the look out for the next studio space.

I teach small workshops from my studio when I am not busy on other projects. At the moment, I prefer to teach on location where everything is specifically set up for teaching.

Janise Yntema, The Other World, 54" x 96", encaustic and mixed media on panel, 2021

Janise Yntema, The Midnight Marsh, 20" x 16", encaustic and mixed media on panel, 2021

How long have you been working with encaustic? What initially drew you to it? What ideas are you exploring in your work?

I have worked in a wide range of media - acrylic, oils, graphite, mixed media, sculpture, assemblage. Trying to find the right fit, I was always on the lookout for new material. I invested in a set of encaustic paints and not knowing what to do with them, they sat in a drawer for a number of years until I signed up for an R&F workshop one snowy winter in 1994. After that course, encaustic became my main material.

With encaustic, my work changed from a very dense dark palette to include the introduction of light and I have continued to work with that concept. The ability to float pigment in a solid is what drew me to encaustic. I'm interested in how refracted light can change a painting.

For quite a long period I was a purist with encaustic but now I’ve gone back to a more mixed media approach. What I have always appreciated with encaustic is the history of the material and craft. I am continually impressed with its versatility. Environmentally, I appreciate that my work with encaustic is, theoretically, sustainable– that my work does not support the fossil fuel industry by incorporating any petroleum byproducts.

One of several example pieces Janise created for her upcoming workshop From 2D to 3D: Transforming Materials with Encaustic & Alchemy at Zijdelings in The Netherlands.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming workshop in The Netherlands?

February 10 - 12, I will be at Zijdelings to teach From 2D to 3D: Transforming Materials with Encaustic & Alchemy, which explores encaustic as both paint and sculptural material. Students will use encaustic as an encapsulator.

We will incorporate and reframe natural, handmade, and industrial elements as an extension of our colour palettes, discovering texture as colour, shadow as line, and form and the 3 dimensional as ‘painting in the round.’ Direction will be given towards the development of compositional form, constructing a uniquely visual architecture of space. The importance of sequence will be discussed as students learn structurally sound methods to ‘build’ a painting.

Where else will you be teaching this year?

In addition, I will be teaching “Contemporary Encaustic” from March 11 - 13 in Ireland at Essence of Mulranny. And from April 21 - 23, I will be in Switzerland at Kunstfreiraum for “Expanding the Narrative of Colour and Form.” New workshops will be listed soon at janiseyntema.com/workshops.

To see more of Janise’s work, visit janiseyntema.com. Follow her teaching on Instagram: @thisencausticpractice.