Payback for days when your paintings paint themselves…..days when you are frustrated. This happens now and then, especially when I am mixing it up in the studio between mediums.
I’ve been heating up the encaustic wax but also finishing up and varnishing some acrylic paintings.In fact, I still have one large acrylic painting that I just keep looking at like it might finish up on it’s own…. yeah, I know…but all of a sudden I will just go for it and paint it all out or something will occur to me that I want to try on it.
But, back to the encaustic. I scraped off the wax from two previous paintings that were never finished since now the inspiration for finishing them is gone. When I haven’t been working with a medium for a time, I feel awkward with working with it for a time. That is the way my day has gone with this work. AND on top of that this is an extreme rectangle that is never my best format.
I had no real thought in mind but I have been mulling over the thoughts of all my paintings actually having a long story in layers beneath the surface. Especially with encaustic, you build layers even more than you do with other mediums. The painting experience can be quick or slow and contemplative. One thing that happens to me is that it is usually contemplative since time is taken to heat up the wax and get sufficient paint out and heated, etc. Once I get a lot of paint down on the panel, then I can start thinking, feeling, and seeing what my imagination or memory directs. Then it doesn’t matter how many layers are added or subtracted, the painting tells me where to go.
Most times, my paintings go toward natural forms but not in the way they really look when you see them but the way I feel the place or environment. I like this since we all have different ways of feeling toward our surroundings and our response will be different.
This painting is like many………..I just felt my way along. I don’t know that it is finished as I will need to come re-visit it in the studio, look and decide then whether or not to keep adding more layers.
I love this complete abstraction of this piece, although there is a an almost landscape feel to it. It is a great balance of the two. I am in awe of the gestural marks on it near the bottom..I strive for that in my encaustics but seldom can I achieve it. Good job and great blog!
Cat
Cathy… thank you. As I was closing out for the day, I, too, got more engrossed in the bottom of this piece. That is why I don’t know about it being finished. There may need to be more of this in the other areas of the painting..
Thanks for sharing your frustration and awkwardness in the studio, Cheryl. Some days are just like that, but eventually we find our way. Looking forward to seeing this when you say it’s done!
Hi Lynne… of course we all have these days. Sometimes though it is more bothersome than others. I got the other panel out today and started working on it…….maybe they will come together as a 2 panel piece. I need to check the photo which in only an phone photo to see what I think as I get away from it.