Kim Amell is a self-taught contemporary encaustic & oil painter based in Banner Elk, NC. She began her artistic career painting murals, custom art and designing interiors for her clients. The need to create an object with her hands has always followed her throughout her life. Her most recent body of work has been exploring the the allure of nature and the power and strength it holds in the world. Kim finds her art inspiration in the textures that nature offers; a worn old piece of wood, the strength of moving water or the way the sun hits the landscape. Kim is moved to create ethereal works that evoke a sense of mystic and wonder that you are drawn into.
“I believe my paintings are a direct emotional response to what I see and experience in nature. My process starts with an image of a place I have visited or experienced while focusing on the feeling I want to create and convey in the piece. When I am totally involved in the process of creating it is easy to get lost in thought, which allows me to feel a connection with calmness and peace. This connection is what I strive to convey in my work. The process of working with encaustics is meditative, yet very physical. Blending and heating of beeswax, resin, shellac and oil paints to create textural surfaces with a waxy depth. Surfaces are heated with a blow torch to create my ethereal and atmospheric work.”
Kim works out of her studio in Banner Elk, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Statement
My work is an exploration of the profound emotional and sensory experiences found within the landscape. Rather than depicting nature in a literal sense, I seek to evoke its essence—its movement, its mystery, and its transient energy. Each painting is a meditation on atmosphere and memory, an invitation for viewers to immerse themselves in the liminal space between perception and feeling.
Working with encaustic and oil paints, I embrace a process that is both intuitive and deeply tactile. Layers of beeswax, resin, and pigment are built up, then manipulated through heat, carving, and erosion. The application of a blowtorch allows me to both construct and reveal, mirroring nature’s own cycles of formation and decay. This alchemical interaction between materials fosters a dynam- ic, ever-evolving surface—one that holds a sense of depth, movement, and im- permanence.
I am drawn to large-scale wood panels, as they provide a vast, immersive field for exploration. Through these compositions, I aim to conjure a sense of vast- ness and intimacy simultaneously—echoing the way we experience the natural world. My work exists at the intersection of control and surrender, where struc- ture meets dissolution, and where the seen and the unseen coexist.
Ultimately, my paintings are an invitation to pause, to look beyond the surface, and to feel the resonance of the landscape on a deeper, more intuitive level. Nature, with its infinite complexity and quiet power, remains my greatest source of inspiration—a constant reminder of our connection to something greater than ourselves.