Artist to give free demo Saturday in Port Townsend
Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 19, 2026
PORT TOWNSEND — Artist Thya Merz will give a free demonstration on Saturday of an ancient medium becoming popular with contemporary artists: encaustic, a paint made of beeswax, natural resin and pigment.
Merz will show how it works during her 3 p.m. presentation at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., Port Townsend. The public is invited to see the free demo, surrounded by Merz’s artworks in the gallery’s juried “Showcase 2026” exhibit.
Merz is a painter, printmaker and educator who lives in Port Townsend. Twelve of her vivid pieces appear at Jeanette Best Gallery, including her works titled “Walk with Me,” “Sunrise Landing,” “The High Road” and “Crossing the Waterfall.”
“Making art is the way I make sense of the world,” she writes on her website.
Merz seeks to stay present, to notice, and to not turn away from what’s happening around her.
Her encaustic demo will include heating the paint on a warm palette and applying it to an absorbent surface, where the layers fuse to one another, creating a range of stunning effects, Merz said.
“Unlike oil paints, encaustic will not yellow or darken over time. It is impervious to water,” she added.
Besides painting with it, artists can scrape, carve, model, sculpt and collage with encaustic.
More about the artist can be found at thyamerz.com. Images of her art at Jeanette Best Gallery can be found under the Shop heading at NorthwindArt.org.
