Tyson Estes

At five years of age, Tyson Estes woke before his family to discover his mother's red lipstick on the kitchen table.  The rich crimson crème was a lovely complement to the new raw wood banister his father had just installed.  Despite the negative reaction of his parents to his artistic debut, Estes's fascination with color and texture began at that moment, and has occupied his attention ever since.

Estes was born in Hoquiam, Washington.  He graduated from Eastern Washington University with a Filmic Art degree, after which he moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in film and television.  After many successful endeavors as a producer and art department specialist, Estes decided that a more personal approach to art was needed, and traded his entertainment career for a paint brush and some canvas. 

Taking inspiration from the lush, wild landscape of the small timber town where he was born and raised, Estes began experimenting with the organic material he so loves as his interest in art blossomed.  Estes revels in the sensation of these materials in his hands as he works wood, wax, metal, paper, and canvas into his art pieces.  Covered from head-to-toe in paint, oil, and dust, Estes works like a man possessed, ripping layers from one canvas and transferring them to the next, then applying schematic drawings, wood, paint, metal shavings, water, and more to create works of ethereal beauty, each unique because of its organic formation. 

Estes specializes in encaustic technique, which is the art of applying layers of melted wax and pigment to create art with a complex, luminous depth.  Encaustic is one of the oldest forms of art, and through the labor-intensive process, Estes continues the story of his artistic forebears in the creation of these works, thus finding his spiritual center. 

His continued passion for art, paired with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge keeps Estes busy learning new techniques, as he spends hours experimenting with new ways of manipulating the materials with which he is already familiar.

In his spare time, Estes enjoys hiking, running, traveling, and lounging with Steve the Cat at his home in Los Angeles.