Positive Thinking
There’s something to be said for positive thinking. I’m ordinarily a positive person and look for the bright side of just about anything. That said, I gotta say, something wonderful must be going to happen for me to make up for the big mess I’m making with these encaustic paints.
You should see the effect I’m getting….not gorgeous I can tell you. It might look a little like marbleizing. Hum…the beeswax smells good though. Nowhere did I see anything in my researching about how to lay down a nice thin even coat of wax. Maybe that’s the problem…so to heck with it. I just decided to keep adding a little more and a little more. My first idea was to melt plain wax on the hot palette and just dip the front of the panel in it and smooth it out. Needless to say, that didn’t work as planned. It might be a good plan but maybe I got in a hurry and the wax wasn’t fluid enough all over the palette yet.
Then I got out some old oil paint sticks and made some marks. Now wonder why that old oil stick looked like black but was really dark blue! On top of the unbleached beeswax it looks like the color pineapple yellow and blue. This will take a little (did I say little??) getting used to.Wax either dries before you can get it from the hot palette to the panel or turns into marbelizing when you heat it up with the little iron or hot gun. I may have to paint with the hot gun in one hand and the brush of wax pigment in the other. Maybe you’re supposed to scrape it all down as you apply it to smooth it out? I don’t know but it’s a work in progress, that’s for sure.
Oh yeah….I think I’ll title the diptych………The Red Thread. Title compliments of a suggestion from my friend, Margot Comstock.
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New diptych finished
Busy morning around here….but the new diptych is finished, photographed (with slides) and a trip to FedEx made to ship a different painting to my friend Gwen Pentecost in Pinetop, AZ. Gwen has graciously extended an invitation to me to show some of my Little Pieces of Land series in a show there at Joyous Lake Gallery in August.
Back to the diptych……….I went back to work on it not knowing if it would take a few strokes of paint or a lot. If you’ve ever worked with acrylic you know how it dries darker than it looks when you are in the process of painting it. It can look just gorgeous and then you go back the next morning and it’s deader than a doornail.So you have to work all over the painting just about every time you pick up the brush. Sometimes, like this time, I’m fortunate that I didn’t have to do that. This painting ended up not taking that much more work and the colors seemed to all come together….it’s a moody painting so I decided extending the value range was not something I wanted to do. It’s title is still “new diptych”….any good ideas out there for a title???
Still gotta go put more paint on the sides and keep myself from adding more anywhere else (you know artists)………varnish and put hangers on…then they can go to the corner of the storage so I can get to work on something else.
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Studio TIme
2nd stage of diptych
Beginning stages of diptych
As you can see, I have been in the studio……….working back and forth for short periods of time. There is no point in working for too long at a time for me or I’ll just make a mess.
Now if I had space to work on 15-20 things at a time, maybe I could just rotate around to each in their own time. So this is my process…….work furiously for a short time, then go do something else and then come back and do more.
Sometimes there is a lot changed from one session to the next and sometimes people might have to hunt for the changes. Digital pictures also don’t show surface quality that much and that is the final part of the process. Anyone working with acrylic knows that just finessing that final finish can make you start all over. Such is the magic and the frustration with acrylic painting. A lot of time is spent just thinking and looking until the moment is right to “just do it”.
Right now I’m in the middle…or I think I am, unless something totally different happens. These two canvases are 40 x 30″ and 40 x 40″ and I plan for them to be shown as a diptych.
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Studio time
Why must I learn this lesson over and over ??? A painting starts out looking good, and then goes downhill from then on. I know this happens all the time but I berate myself for not being able to start something and finish it and still like it. SO…I just got out some paint, closed my eyes and zapped over half of the canvases to start over.
I’ve been looking at the new canvases on the painting wall for days with all kinds of excuses to keep from doing anything else since the fateful second day when I added paint that RUINED the whole thing. Heck, I even went in the studio and wrapped and packed all the paintings for a show that won’t open until August. They were really in my way since I pulled them a couple of weeks ago………..HUM, but where to put them now in their 3 big boxes. I guess the dining area is as good a place as any for the time being.
I need to clean the paintings storage closet out and just destroy some pieces… or I considered giving them to the local art museum for an auction to raise money. If they would send them out of town that might be a good thing as I hate to undercut my own sales by giving away work that locals might buy at cheap prices. Oh well, just a thought as I need to clean out the closet now and then.
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Grrrr…. & New Blog Name
How do I get myself into these things? A learning curve, I suppose. Early on in the process of working on Ampersand panels (actually the shadowboxes turned over), I covered the sides with blue masking tape……..it really bothered me and I couldn’t get away from the relationships of the color on the sides and what I was applying to the surface. I took it off and was fairly careful not to make too much of a mess. Now that I am through working on the panels, I decided they looked a little TOO raw birch so I thought I’d just stain them lightly with some gel clear maple stain and then paste wax them. Guess what…that darn gel is still sticky today and I ran a search and saw that it would have been best to wipe them down after 10-15 minutes. I don’t remember ever doing that in the past…and MinWax should make larger print on the directions on the can!
So I’ve been in the studio rubbing sides of panels with paint thinner and then sanding and needless to say this will be NOT be a good experience. I’ve learned my lesson and will make sure the sides are masked off with brown painter’s tape I found next time and there will be no gel stain on them either.
BTW……what kind of presentation and finishes are contemporary painters/artists using in your area? I had even considered wiping a little white glaze on these pieces at one time and then decided not to. I guess if I made a gazillion dollars I could have an assistant or send out for framing but since I don’t …guess it will just be me. Mostly I try not to frame but sometimes you just gotta!
Oh yeah….did you notice I changed the title of my blog….branding, that’s what Alyson Stanfield of ArtBizBlog calls it.
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Twelve Panels
I decided to just go ahead and make a page on my site for all the panels I’ve been working on. I finally got them photographed today…still haven’t taken slides but that can wait for another day (with a little sun).
This is one of them…Green 1……..sorry no great ideas for titles for these yet. Here is the link to the page with all of them.
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Panels done………and Just Stuff
Hummm…it’s been a while since I posted to the blog. Guess I gotta quit saying that as it happens quite frequently.
I’ve been out and about, working on the twelve panels (which I think I am deciding are finished). I just put an insolation medium coat of GAC 500 on and maybe will sand and very lightly stain and finish the sides to resemble framing.
I had a wonderful visit with Nita Leland in Dallas over a couple of days there. My friend Robin Walker and I met her one evening for dinner and we all talked non-stop for two hours. Aren’t artist friends great! I went home the next day instead of going by her workshop………the oak pollen has done a number on me for over a week. The headache will NOT go away.
I’ve had some very flattering news lately………..I got a call from Kathy Cooper of the Women Artists of the West group last week. She asked me if I would exhibit with their group at the Annual Exhibit and meeting to be held at the Hilligoss Galleries, Chicago, IL (actually at the Long Grove gallery location) in November. Wow….well of course, I said yes. Now what will I send or maybe paint something new? It’s an honor to be included in this group although I certainly don’t paint like anyone else who is a member there. They seem to have mostly realistic painters. They do have diverse interests, with their membership scattered all over the country…and not just in the western states now.
After the panels dry….I’m putting them away for awhile to “rest“. and will be getting some big canvases down to start priming for the next project. Been working on those little pieces TOO long….I coulda painted a mural by now.
Oh………..and all those little wax tools like hot palettes and paints are coming in and staring at me……but they can wait for some new little panels for the moment.I’ve spent a lot of time at the encaustic forum, too, so no wonder I didn’t have time to post anything
……Getting out those BIG brushes next.
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Thinking of last year
Just sitting here at the computer and blogarithm sent me my blogs update. There in the couple of new updates was one I started watching just before heading to France last year at the end of March. Meanwhile, here in France is the blog. It sure made me want to pack up and go back. Looking at all the spring flowers popping up and the blogger talking about sitting out drinking a glass of rose with her lunch……..hum, nice.
On the art side……..I’ve been buying and sending off for encaustic supplies. I’ve had it in mind and waffled back and forth for several years now. It could really be a neat way to collage but is also expensive and a learning curve for what will work with wax and what won’t fuse properly. It also concerned me for the fumes and health issues. The more I read the more I realized that one really big factor to staying safe (other than good ventilation) is to buy the paints and mediums instead of making them yourself and good equipment to keep the temperature from getting too hot and making harmful fumes. I know it isn’t as simple as that but it’s a start. I’ve spent lots of time researching on the R & F forum. I won’t be able to use my acrylic painted papers but will work around all that and see how it goes.
DUH……….it would be nice if I read my previous post sometime before writing another with some of the same info. Oh well, I had to come back and label this post anyway as I keep forgetting to do it half the time.
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Catching up
I’ve been busy with no time to take out to blog. More important. truthfully, is that when there was time there was really nothing I wanted to write.
I’ve continued to work on some of the panels. These are the two blue ones. Also I have two red ones probably about ready to put away as well. The green pair…they are still staring at me relentlessly from the wall easel.
I went to Baton Rouge at the end of the week to trade out some paintings with my gallery there. They ended up keeping a couple that I planned to bring back. But hey, that’s alright if someone is looking at them over at their other location.
My friend Christy offered me a place to stay overnight while I was there. We had a good long talk that evening and went out to her studio to look at encaustic equipment and supplies. She sent me home with some beeswax pellets and an old rival crockette for the paraffin wax to clean your brushes…and a bunch of oriental paper to play with. So I broke down and sent off for the electric palette made by Encaustikos…and the book everyone recommends by Joanne Mattera. I was getting ready to order some pigments, mediums,etc. when it dawned on me to wait until I get back from the trip to Dallas next week as that will be about the time they would be delivered. I have a lot of oil pastels and even some paint sticks in the studio so I can use those, too. I found a place called Evans Encaustics on the internet. I think I’ll order some basic supplies from them and see how this goes. It will be another learning curve as you can’t use acrylic in your underpainting with encaustics. My plan….if you can call it that is to learn to use wax with my collage work…and make it just another form of mixed media. It occurred to me that I might be able to encapsulate the acrylic painted papers with something that is compatible with encaustic. If anyone knows of such …let me know. I’m thinking maybe…white shellac.The main thing is to find something that won’t repel the wax from sticking but that will seal up the acrylic paint on the paper.
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Continuing saga of the panels
I’m spending too much time back and forth to the computer. Seems like it’s sometimes harder to get your work back to the studio and rotated around to galleries than it takes to paint. But, I’ve got a couple of more panels half working…………
Here are the two that have the working titles of Orange/Maroon right now. I have two blue ones, too…but not to post yet.
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Yellow Panels
I got sidetracked from the panels by getting some airline reservations………not to be used until May. It will be a nice trip when the time comes.
I did get back into the studio and various other energy taking endeavors yesterday. I pulled four of the group out and just painted. Looks an awful lot like some of my big paintings, only small. Actually, I started with three and then pulled in another one that wasn’t working with collage under a couple of layers of paint.
Now I gotta ask myself why I’m beating myself up over painting all these little panels when they are taking so much time and will not bring in as much revenue as one big painting. Ask……well, of course, I didn’t know I was going to get blocked like this and not like a darn thing I was painting. I was expecting MORE and didn’t get it. If people who buy paintings only realized that (for me anyway) they can sometimes take more time and patience than large works, then maybe they would be willing to pay more for them.
My original idea was for them to be hung and sold as groups of four anyway. Although now I can say that the original idea was to have three painted ones and one turned with the shadowbox incorporating 3 d objects/collage. A purchaser could then arrange them to their heart’s content. That idea went down the tubes when none of them were working. With that out of my mind, I can now just go paint them in groups of however many works.
I have no idea how I will like them all or if anyone else will either when I’m done. I still haven’t done anything else to the two green/darkblue ones and have two other sets to work on next.
I was just set to put them all away and get out a big canvas but then worked on these instead.
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A Quote for the Day
A quote for the day……just after clicking around through some blogs, I came across this quote. How appropriate for me (without the top artist part)..as I’m asking myself this over and over the past couple of years…and I think it’s getting worse every year.
“It seems that I am considered a top artist and that doesn’t surprise me. But that doesn’t help me to make a new work. I go to work every time thinking, “What on earth am I going to do?” How will I make something that works?” – Robert Rauschenberg
The small panels I’ve been working on over and over sporadically just keep changing. I hesitate to post a picture as by the time anyone sees the image (and of course, just LOVES it)…….it may very well be painted over.
BUT………..here are two of them.
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