ABOUT
the artist
Kaylee Dalton lives in Elkhart, Indiana and graduated with a degree in fine art and painting from Ball State University. She went on to study with the late Walter Darby Bannard under a full-scholarship for a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country including, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis and Miami. Kaylee was chosen from hundreds as one of the 2017 and 2018 Hoosier Women Artists honored by the Indiana Statehouse. Her work is in the nationally and internationally recognized art publications and spotlights, Studio Visit Magazine, CreativPaper, Thalia Magazine, Candy Floss Magazine, The Jealous Curator and the cover of Create! Magazine issue 8. Kaylee Dalton’s award-winning work is in private and public collections, including the Anderson Museum of Art and the Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, NM. She represented by Paradigm Gallery inside the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and Nahcotta gallery in Portsmouth, NH.
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My process involves making numerous watermedia paintings, paper drawings and encaustic monotypes. All are clipped or torn and assembled as collage creating layered abstractions with a hint of a landscape. Encaustic paint (hot wax) is directly applied onto an anodized aluminum plate heated on an electric griddle. A print is then pulled from it. To me each monotype provides a sense of movement and timeless quality. Simultaneously, layers of watered down acrylic, gouache, ink and watercolors are poured on papers generating depth but also unplanned natural pattern. I strive for strong textural contrasts reflective of the various surfaces found in nature.
My works are a representation of growth or lack thereof. Interpreting the fascinating consistency of botanical growth & diminishment, the expressive characteristics natural forms exude and their relatable qualities. Comparable to people, plants are intriguing and complicated. They’re always shifting; either becoming weaker or stronger. I draw inspiration from that delicate continuous state of flux.