Cynthia Garbutt
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→ The World of Interiors Marketplace 2021
→ Artist Closeup Magazine 2025
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→ Studio Cire/Cornelia Arts Open House Chicago 2023-2025
→ Burnham Harbor Yacht June 2025
→ Exhibit Vibrant Cast Gallery (Chicago) 2024
→ Circle Arts digital exhibit New York Expo 2023
→ Ginger Blue Gallery 2018-2020
→ Michigan Goldin Jewelers Chicago 2018-2020
→ Chicago Global Health Alliance Annual Art auction 2017-2019
→ Ann Arbor Art Fair - Accepted 2018
→ Saginaw Art Fair participant 2017
Instruction: Encaustic
→ Master Class Montana 2016
→ Lill Street Art Studio Chicago 2013
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→ Circle Arts Artistic Excellence Award 2023
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Cynthia first learned that encaustic art existed when her son came home from a high school art class and showed her his art. He went on to become an architect in NYC and Cynthia became an encaustic artist in Chicago.
She discovered that every abstract contemporary encaustic art piece she created took on a life of its own as heat, wax and special oil paint joined together. Considered a hard core type of modern art (a tool-sized propane tank is often utilized), Cynthia dons her protective mask and insulated gloves to create provocative, textured art.
Living a creative life is of utmost importance to Cynthia. She is also a poet, photographer, wife, mother, and global health advocate. Recently disabled by post-viral illness, Cynthia is dedicated to the idea that creativity in any form is a healing experience -- whether it is the making of art or the appreciation of art by the viewer. It is a powerful force and has aided in her path to recovery.
Cynthia Horvath Garbutt is the founder of Studio Cire in Chicago. She creates contemporary abstract art using innovative encaustic processes. Attracted to the marriage of color and texture, Cynthia experiments with every art piece she creates. The unknowing of the final result propels her forward with excitement and wonder.
Founded in 2014, Studio Cire is an art studio devoted exclusively to encaustic art. Dating back to ancient Greece, encaustic painting is a rare process of combining wax, oil paint, damar resin and heat to produce lasting works of art. The word "encaustic" itself means to burn in. The modern application of this ancient process results in an exceptional art form as the wax becomes both palette and master of layered, abstract forms. Given the independent nature of the heat element combined with the fluidity of liquid wax, which ultimately hardens, no two pieces are the same nor can they be duplicated. Each is an original like no other.
Cynthia employs a nearly living medium that interacts with light and angle to form an enduring artistic presence. From small pieces to large wood cradleboards, her encaustic art is singular. Very few contemporary artists venture into the world of encaustics, daunted by the process. Cynthia, however, is an ardent student of the practice of encaustic art.
Cynthia’s stunning abstract pieces are in collections both in the United States and internationally. Her art pieces have sold in gallery space in the Midwest, displayed in retail space in the Gold Coast in Chicago, donated to global health nonprofits for auction, and included in The World of Interiors Marketplace in 2021.
Cynthia also accepts commissioned work. For further information and inquiries, please contact her.
