The Encaustic Conference Organizing Team
Amelia Kraemer
Amelia Kraemer (she/they) is the lead organizer of the Canadian Encaustic Conference. Amelia actively promotes artistic community involvement in the City of Owen Sound. Amelia is the owner of Upwards Art an art supply store and workshop venue located in Owen Sound. They are also a founding member of the Owen Sound Art Council which manages the Urban Easel public art banner exhibition as well as the Owen Sound Community Artist Studio Tour.
Amelia is an artist and instructor skilled in mixed media and encaustic techniques, she is very knowledgeable about all of the products that they sell at Upwards Art. Amelia’s own artistic journey has been enriched by many generous teachers which has inspired them to provide a similar enriching experience for their own students.
Ruth Martin Maude
Ruth Martin Maude (she/her) is a Canadian artist, instructor, blogger, and web designer based in Toronto, Ontario. She is the founder of All Things Encaustic, a blog offering techniques and resources for the encaustic art community.
Ruth’s artistic process centres on experimentation, with encaustic offering seemingly endless possibilities. Her paintings often begin with loose mark-making and playful underpainting, creating space for discovery. Through layering and revision, intuition and experience shape the final work.
Her work is included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Encaustic Art (MoEA) in New Mexico and is held in private collections across Canada and the United States.
She is a board member and Chair of Marketing and Communications at Propeller Art Gallery, and an organizer, presenter, and instructor at the Canadian Encaustic Conference. Through these roles, she helps create opportunities for dialogue, learning, and exchange within the art community.
Pre-Conference Workshop:
Teresa (Terry) Gregg
Terry Gregg (she/her) is a Canadian artist living in Fergus, Ontario. Her work is inspired by nature, stories behind words, rusty found objects, antiques and cityscapes.
She studied art in high-school and took electives in art history and design while studying Commerce at the University of Alberta. Over 12 years ago she was gifted an afternoon encaustic class and was immediately captivated. She continues to explore this multi-faceted medium in her studio at the Elora Centre for the Arts and is a member of the Elora Fergus Studio Tour.
Terry is one of the founding members of the Canadian Encaustic Conference.
Denise Callaghan
Denise Callaghan (she/her) is an encaustic/mixed media artist who divides her time between the rocky shorelines of Georgian Bay and the white sand beaches of northern Florida – with time in between spent in Essex County (Windsor/LaSalle).
She is a member of the Bruce Peninsula Society of Artists, where she serves as Treasurer on their Board of Directors; and the Carrabelle Artist Association, Florida. She is a member of the Red Schoolhouse Gallery, a cooperative gallery in Ferndale, and the Southampton Arts Centre. Her work can be seen at these two galleries as well as at the Art Shoppe in Miller Lake. Her work is also available at The Pearl, Apalachicola Florida and Callie’s, Eastpoint Florida.
Her art is grounded in the belief that in the midst of our lives we must find the magic that makes our souls soar.
Denise is one of the founding members of the Canadian Encaustic Conference.
Megan MacDonald
Megan MacDonald (she/her) is a multi-disciplinarian visual artist and instructor.
Drawn to natural and organic forms, the energy of hand-drawn lines, and the alchemy that occurs with the convergence of natural elements. Megan gravitated to encaustics due to its beautiful depth and luminosity, as well as, the myriad of possibilities this medium offers.
Megan has been instructing and mentoring for over 20 years and has been a guest instructor for a wide variety of groups and institutions. She studied fine art at Emily Carr University.
Megan is a Artist Instructor for R&F Handmade Paints, an instructor and presenter for the IEA conference at Morro Bay and instructed at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Her work can be found in numerous private collections around the globe. Megan works out of her studio, the Crow’s Nest Art Studio, in Kelowna, BC.
Megan joins the CEC 2026 Organizing Committee.
Pre-Conference Workshop
Jennifer Young
Jennifer Young (she/her) is fascinated with being able to translate the human story into a visual representation. Her motivation has been to transform a narrative into an image and to create a painting that the viewer can feel the passion, the emotion, the sense of place. She hopes to transport the viewer into the story.
In her art practice, Jennifer is committed to continual experimentation and innovation; of finding new ways to combine traditional methodologies with unexpected applications. She is always honoured when others recognize these efforts. Jennifer was recently awarded the Innovation Award by the Craft Council of NL. She has received both Canada Council for the Arts and ArtsNL grant funding for her work. In recent years, she has had numerous public exhibitions in various galleries across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Jennifer joins the Conference Organizing Committee for the 2026 Conference.
Pre-Conference Workshop: