Shima Shanti | Encaustic Purist
by Western Home Journal

Encaustic art, painting with beeswax and fusing with fire, is one of the oldest art forms dating back 2,500 years to Egypt and Greece. Shima Shanti is a purist encaustic painter. From simple observation to deeper contemplative meditation, her impression-istic paintings explore the rhythmic, fluid, and steadfast consistency of nature.

“With my studio door open, bees are drawn to the scent of wax,” Shima observes. “It’s a sensual and tactile medium.”

In the pre-dawn hours when the outside world has yet to awaken, Shima begins each day walking to her studio in the lake-side hamlet of Del Dios. Before sunrise, the neighboring owls, coyotes, and unseen bobcats are retreating from a raucous night and the waking call of dove, quail, hummingbird, and woodpecker is tuning up. “I am alone with my thoughts. In this absence of distraction, I am free with no boundaries. My art develops in colorless silence free of my ego’s interpretation,” she muses.

“Art is a language that speaks to those who listen with their heart” is Shima’s unifying and universal philosophy. Her paintings are refined. Her art is pure. There is an understated elegance and a sense of luxury that can be felt as much as seen.

“I did not realize I was undertaking such a challenging medium. I am drawn to the luminous translucence of light and all-organic elements, its historical significance and the importance of bees in nature.”

–Shima Shanti, Artist

Light reflecting through beeswax suggests movement unique to encaustic work. The tactile bubbles, ripples, and markings tempt you to touch. For those brave enough to ask, Shima invites them to run their hands across the high-gloss surfaces. Her signature palette of earth-tone hues, neutral whites, and teal blues conveys visions of peace. Upon entering her fine art fair salons, viewers comment on the palpable calm and sense of ease.

Shima is often asked why she chooses to paint with beeswax; known as one of the most difficult, expensive, and complex processes. “I did not realize I was undertaking such a challenging medium,” she responds. “I am drawn to the luminous translucence of light and all-organic elements, its historical significance and the importance of bees in nature.”

And then Shima is asked where her inspiration comes from. “Growing up with the abundance of water and endless blue sky of Montana has forever connected me to nature,” Shima says. “It has gifted me with an innate sense of color and composition.”

An off-hand comment from her collector, who compared her work to Richard Diebenkorn, inspired Shima to explore Diebenkorn, the California painter who defined the California school of Abstract Expressionism during the early 1950s through 1960s.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s free-spirited independence guided Shima deeper into her own painting. “I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught, to accept as true my own thinking,” said O’Keeffe.

Shima followed a similar path in her own artistic journey where she, too, surrendered all she had been taught in her upbringing and corporate career to the way of being an artist. “I paint to be true to myself,” she says.

Edgar Payne’s rugged beauty and shimmering light impressionism is Shima’s North Star. Largely self-taught, he, too, found inspiration in nature. Payne became even more kindred when Shima learned that in 1913, he painted the mural in the historic Northern Hotel in her hometown of Billings, Montana.

“I’m a purist encaustic painter,” she says. “I paint with molten beeswax mixed with the highest quality pigment on custom crafted Baltic Birch panels. I spare no expense in my materials. It speaks of the impeccability and reverence I infuse in my work. It’s a precious feeling for me, a sense of value.”

Before the first brushstroke, Shima spends days preparing. First, she masks the sides of the panel, then paints and sands the surface with encaustic gesso, a white chalk-based paint, followed by 3-5 layers of clear wax fused with the torch. These primary steps imbue special care that adds depth and translucence to her painting.

Each artwork guides Shima in a personal way, taking shape on its own. “Often it is only after a painting is finished that I feel its emotion. Other times, its meaning remains hidden even from me, patiently waiting to be reflected in the eye of the beholder; a private message meant for their eyes only.”

Shima’s aesthetic is minimal. Her earth-tone palette is neutral, deep, and rich. In this simplicity, unexpected levels of complexity surface.

She paints flat on a table, not on an easel. She has an idea of where to start, yet she’s never quite certain of the outcome. As the process unfolds, she is unexpectedly surprised.

Every brushstroke and pass of the torch asks for a choice; as in life, each choice affects the whole, creating patina and texture that is storied, translucent, and luminous. It has taught Shima to treasure imperfection and the spontaneity of life.

Next to the panel are hot plates heated to 200 degrees lined with mini-loaf pans. Each pan holds the custom-created color that is distinctly Shima. Her palette strongly guides her in a certain direction. “My choice of all-natural earth elements – organic beeswax, earth pigments, the fir tree sap Damar, and birch panels – is a quiet whisper to the authenticity and integrity of my work,” she explains.

Using large natural bristle brushes, she paints the molten wax onto the panel layer upon layer, lightly fusing each layer to the one beneath it. There can easily be 50 layers of wax in a painting. “I paint with the subtlety of flame. How I use the torch marks my work uniquely mine. How heavy is my hand, how fast my motion, how high the heat; they all influence the outcome. I’ve mastered how to paint with fire,” she says.

Using ceramic tools, Shima scrapes back the top layers to reveal the buried colors and expose the hidden designs. Through this sculptural process of adding and redacting, the composition unfolds.

“I hold a special reverence for the unseen details in the complex and labor-intensive encaustic process,” she muses. “I believe the energy I infuse into each painting stirs something within us, awakens us, and beckons us to linger a moment longer in our shared appreciation of art.”

Finally, she polishes the beeswax surface with a soft cloth to bring out its natural luster. The revelation is mystical. “When the rhythmic pulse of water and waves synchronize with each brushstroke and beat of my heart; that’s when my encaustic painting is masterful,” she adds. “I know the painting is done when I see what I feel in my heart.”

“I hold a special reverence for the unseen details in the complex and labor-intensive encaustic process. I believe the energy I infuse into each painting stirs something within us, awakens us, and beckons us to linger a moment longer in our shared appreciation of art.”

– Shima Shanti

Shima’s art is nationally recognized and celebrated at some of the most prestigious contemporary fine art fairs in Palm Beach and the Hamptons, New York, West Coast Los Angeles, and Scottsdale. Select galleries display her work in Bozeman, Scottsdale, Palm Beach, Washington, D.C., and Rochester, New York.

Shima is both artist and author. Her beautifully crafted art book is now available. One hundred twenty-eight pages, large-scale full-bleed imagery and well-crafted typography, with open breathing space, guide you inward to your own reflective thoughts and mindful conclusions. “I write to create an exact image with my words. When words are too defined to describe the depths of my soul, I turn to painting without any degree of exactness,” she says. “Each in their own language is guided by my heart and voiced from my soul.”