Marlis Hotz I Atelier I Hot wax pictures

I, Marlis Hotz, saw the light of day on a farm in the Zurich Oberland in 1966 as the eldest of four children der World.

I remember well the day my godfather gave me my first easel and oil paints. When I was 11, I began to paint with passion every free minute between work and school. My drawings were the only thing that excited my middle school teacher.

I remember just as well the day when a high school teacher insulted me after a meeting with parents and said that I shouldn't be imagining anything about painting. I was so humiliated that I destroyed all my work, punched through the canvas and vowed never to touch a brush again.

Soon after, my parents got divorced and I had to move to the city. The only thing that gave me security until now was nature. I was paralyzed. There was no money either, so I had to bury my desire to go to art school. A few difficult years followed before peace returned to my life.

I got married in 1991, had three children and brought my job home as a trained housekeeper. My husband and I opened our home to adults,  young people in difficult life situations and also four foster children. 

I lived my creativity out in such a way that I tried out a lot, but never stayed with anything for long. Thanks to the children, I got my hands on brushes again.

In 2002 I attended the first painting course and started to paint with pastels. Other techniques came later. With the help of books and the Internet, I tried out various techniques in self-study and also bought oil paints again - always looking for my own technique. I have also attended a number of courses over the years. The most intensive and instructive was certainly the one with the Dutch artist Marion De Jong. 

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In 2017, at a Boesner event, I saw a picture in which beeswax was worked into one spot at the end. Fascinated by this, I melted a beeswax candle at home and drew on a picture with it. I was enthusiastic about researching on the internet and then I came across various wax crayons and, as a result, encaustic. From that moment on I knew that this was my technique and that I could incorporate everything I had learned so far into encaustic._cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_