Alison Fullerton Explores Ancient Painting Techniques in WAX FUSION Exhibition at Nashville State
Artist Alison Fullerton explores the intersection of encaustic and fresco painting in WAX FUSION, opening December 2, 2026, at Nashville State Community College. The exhibition runs through January 29, 2027, in the campus gallery in Health and Humanities (H) Building. An opening reception will be held December 2, from 5 to 8 p.m., and is free and open to the public.
Fullerton’s paintings are influenced by ancient cultures and techniques. She combines
encaustic, which is an ancient Egyptian painting medium made with heated beeswax,
with Renaissance fresco and stucco. She takes inspiration from weathered paint and
stone walls that she encounters bikepacking summers in Europe. Learning that Venetian
painters used wax to burnish plaster inspired her to experiment with lime plaster
and fresco with encaustic wax.
A two-week stay in Avignon, France, helped shape Fullerton’s approach to layering, erasure, and the passage of time.
“We got stuck in Avignon. We couldn’t ride our bikes because the Mistral winds made it too dangerous. So, I walked the streets and noticed the rhythms of the city. I saw new graffiti in the morning, and by noon it was cleaned up and painted over. I noticed the layers, the washed-over words and voices. This became my guide. Layering and destruction.”
Fullerton’s work is held in permanent collections at Vanderbilt University, Texas Woman's University, the John Wesley Powell Museum and the National US Air Force Museum.
Alison has authored articles on encaustic and is a teaching artist. Her exhibition FLY GIRLS- the WASP Portraits (Women’s Air Force Service Pilots) was exhibited across the US and at the Nashville Airport (Flying Solo), before being acquired by the US Air Force Museum and by the WASP Archives. Her series Native Women Warriors was on 10 Nashville billboards and was featured on the cover of the International Encaustic Artist’s magazine.
Alison lived in Germany for 3 years and immersed herself in European encaustics before returning home to Nashville. She worked in a sculpture atelier and was invited to join Germany’s oldest art guild, the Künstlerbund Stuttgart, founded in 1876.
