Lauren Combs’ medium of choice is encaustic wax, which is beeswax with heat applied, she said.

“It’s very natural,” Combs said. “It’s translucent so you can see the under layers coming up, which I just think is incredibly beautiful. It’s very different, and it’s fun.”

Encaustic art has been found etched in the remains of 5,000-year-old ships, Combs said. The wax was also used in the Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits, which historians estimate to have been painted during the first century B.C.

Combs moved to The Woodlands from New England in 1990 and took an interest in art at a young age. Now, as president of The Woodlands Art League, Combs is dedicated to teaching art classes and workshops throughout the community.

“I really feel everyone can [paint],” she said. “I’m not a genius. I was born with a strong interest in it because I’m visually motivated, but I probably could have just as easily been an engineer or something that would give me that outlet. Everyone who has that can learn how to do art.”

Combs said she is mostly self-taught, but she credits fine-tuning her skills to her art teachers throughout high school and college. Her instructors  influenced her paintings while she was learning; however, her work has evolved, she said.

“As you join an artist community you start finding your niche, so almost anything I do now in any medium looks like me,” Combs said.

In addition to painting, Combs has also dabbled in photography and framing as well as crafts such as needlework and rug braiding.

“I came back to fine arts when I was living here and my kids got bigger,” Combs said. “I was working in framing, and it was nice to be around art. But then of course you get the itch, so I got back into painting.”

Combs said she never finished college, but she has taken many college-level art courses, including some at Lone Star College-Montgomery.

Drawing from her New England roots, Combs still draws inspiration from places like Maine.

“It’s almost impossible not to want to do something artistic when you go to Maine, if you have an artistic bone in your body,” she said.  “It’s just so beautiful [for] photography and painting.”

Since moving to The Woodlands, Combs has been involved with the art league three separate times. She joined again in 2006 and has been involved with WAL in some capacity ever since. This is her first year as president.

Combs said having a group outlet like the art league is important for exploration and learning.

“It really empowers artists because the first time [someone asks], ‘What do you do?’ you don’t say, ‘I’m a mom,’ or, ‘I’m a framer,’ or, ‘I’m staying at home right now,’ or anything else,” Combs said. “You say, ‘I’m an artist,’ and all of a sudden your realize how much that pulls everything together and changes your whole outlook.”