With some help from honeybees, a Dexter Township artist is creating Michigan-themed works of art

A love of gardening and pollinators inspires local artist Polly Maccini to create some unique paintings, and so does the beauty of Michigan. You can see some of them on display at Erratic Ale and Lily’s Place in Dexter and at the Chelsea Bakery.

Of her art, she says she uses the beeswax from her honeybees, along with color pigment and a torch to “gain a unique and one-of-a kind design inspired by Michigan’s beautiful scenery and local natural elements.”

This unique style is called Encaustic Painting. Maccini said this is an ancient art form, dating back to the 5th century BCE. Some of her more popular paintings are a close-up of a Petoskey Stone and the Mackinac Bridge.

Wanting to learn more about this local artist and her work, the Sun Times News connected with Maccini, who is a Dexter Township resident.

“Art embodies my soul and provides a vehicle for me to share it with others,” she answered when asked why she loves art. “I see the world in vibrant colors and enjoy capturing nature’s patterns through this lens.”

She said she loves to create colorful paintings, with many layers to create depth and texture.

“I honestly lose track of both time and space when I am painting,” she said. “I’ll start melting my beeswax medium early in the morning and can paint for hours, although it feels like minutes have passed.”

In many cases, her art looks to the many trips to northern Michigan, where she is always captivated at the different landscapes. Maccini said she wants to try to capture those amazing moments within her encaustic paintings. As an example, she said she loves to search for Petoskey Stones with her family and capture those moments on her wooden panels with paintings of the “beautiful patterns that were formed from the ancient fossils.”

One of Maccini's works of art. photo courtesy of Polly Maccini

An inspiration for her to pursue art was her father, who she described as a true renaissance man.

“He was a geologist and also an artist who mostly used watercolors to represent rural and coastal settings,” Maccini said. “It’s probably where I get my love of education, painting and the natural world. I suppose I followed in his footsteps as a former mathematics middle and high school teacher and as a professor at the University of Maryland and now artist. My love of math, particularly algebraic reasoning, inspires me to create paintings with repeated patterns and relationships. I love to observe shapes and patterns and portray those snapshots of time within my artwork.”

Her husband and daughter also play a huge role in her inspiration and have supported her new art business wholeheartedly, she said. They are a big part of her motivation and new art business, and help her with marketing, social media, travel to local establishments to hang paintings, and ideas for paintings.

As to what makes her art unique, it’s in large part her honeybees.

“They are an organized species with a hierarchical nature and they never cease to amaze me with their work ethic and beauty,” she said of the bees.

She said she started beekeeping over four years ago under the mentorship of Dale Lesser of Lesser Farms in Dexter. He provided her with guidance and support over the years, from starting the colony, to showing her how to perform routine hive checks, extract honey and wax.

She uses the beeswax from her hive and damar resin to make the Encaustic medium for her paintings.

Explaining the process, she said Encaustic painting begins with mixing pigments and wax on a substrate, such as a wood panel, which are then fused or burned in through the use of a heat source, such as a heat gun or propane torch. The molten, colored wax is added layer at a time, she said.

“The process is both labor intensive and time consuming, but produce both magnificent color and texture,” she said.

For those interested in seeing her work, in addition to having her paintings in Erratic Ale, Lily’s Place and Chelsea Bakery, she also has a new online store on Etsy: WaxOnCreationsLLC.Etsy.com.

The online store currently has a few of her paintings for sale and she is currently working on news ones to post soon, so stay tuned. She donates a portion of her sales to various pollinator causes.

Titled "Up North Coastline," this image is from Maccini's Etsy page.