Ruth Kapcia: Resilience in Bloom
August 6 - 29, 2026
First Thursday Art Walk - Thursday August 6th, 5-8pm
Melted Oil Pastel Demonstrations - Saturday August 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th, 1-4pm
Closing Reception - Saturday August 29th, 4-6pm
Dahlia paintings rendered in melted wax create a fresh series balancing the sorrow and joy of the current moment by drawing on traditional flower symbolism. Kapcia melts oil pastels into multi-layered pointillism images based on her own photography from a Skagit Valley nursery in the PNW.
Artist Statement
Over the past few years, I have been trying to define my emotions and thoughts, influenced by events in the U.S. and around the world that I find deeply disturbing, and to visualize these sentiments as effectively as possible.
While exploring the themes of sorrow, joy, truth, and the distortion of reality, I want my work to resonate with others, allowing them to connect with the imagery on multiple levels and appreciate its beauty. I currently use flowers, Dahlias in particular, because they represent the capacity to withstand or recover from difficulties, both mental and physical. They define elegance, grace, inner strength, resilience, creativity, and positive change, all elements needed in the times we live in.
This new body of work is inspired by photos I have taken of Dahlias over the years from my visits to the Skagit Valley, north of Seattle. The rich colors and varied sizes of the flowers inspire an ample array of designs. At times, I will present the flower in a recognizable form, while at other times it can be an up-close or a cropped view, making it harder to see the full form of the flower. This represents reality and our attempt to discern what is truth and what is fiction... how to see something for what it clearly is, or what it may not be.
I bring the images to life by developing richly textured surfaces, influenced by my love of textiles and by the work of the Impressionists and Abstract Impressionists. Using a process of melting, layering, and building individual marks, I create paintings with extraordinary depth and texture, pushing oil pastels beyond their traditional limits. From across the room, they radiate with color, but up close, they reveal a remarkably intricate surface. I have been developing this technique with melted oil pastels over several years, progressing and refining it to create one-of-a-kind images. I blend the oil pastels with a higher pigment-to-oil ratio to create a specific color palette and dot density.
I look to continue developing this distinctive technique and applying it to future interpretations and evolution of the subject matter, reflecting the times we are in and the emotions we are wrestling with... and to find ways to bring a bit of joy and peace to chaos.