Kathleen Doud Reilley 

Kathleen Doud Reilley, a fourth generation resident of Ventura, California, was born into a family of artists. Her mother, Meridee Doud, is an artist who works in watercolor, pastel and pen and ink. She is the oldest of four girls and always knew she would follow her mother and become an artist.

She started as an art major at Chico State but then switched to liberal studies and got a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential and taught in Pacific Grove. She married Larry Reilley, raised four children and taught for 12 years at Monica Ros School in Ojai. After stint teaching, she turned to serigraphs for the next 20 years. Her focus on encaustic painting only began in 2003.

The Ojai Valley artist had a friend invited her to attend a workshop in encaustic in Santa Fe, N.M., and became enraptured by this ancient medium dating back to Greece, 100 BC. She left the five-day workshop with all the supplies and equipment she would need. She hasn't looked back and now does encaustic full time.

“This medium is so satisfying, it smells so devine that bees and hummingbirds often pass through my studio attracted to its’ sweet honey fragrance.”

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Encaustic paint consists of beeswax and pigment with a resin base. It must be heated before application, each layer of paint fused to the layer beneath. Encaustic paint can be opaque or translucent, giving a unique depth to the finished product. This delicious medium lends itself to endless means of application.

Kathleen’s paintings are created on the surface of birch wood panels, or paper, which is adhered to Plexiglas. She uses a propane torch and a heat gun to fuse the layers of encaustic.