New oil painting in progress
Working some days now in encaustic, I suddenly had the urge to paint with oil again. I got all the supplies I needed set up and started adding layers until I just couldn’t add any more since they were too wet. I did make a lot of marks by inscribing into the paint and just playing around with marks and the brayer.
Today the work had set up some so I set out to add more paint…. same old, same old….. you add paint, you make marks, you cover them up and you make more. If you aren’t careful (and even if you are) you make mud. Well……….there is good mud, beautiful mud and just mud.
I was afraid I had the ‘just mud’ without enough contrast or spark there. SO it is time to take a photo with the handy i-phone and go back to the house. These are the pics I took without any lighting on them…just the light from the windows coming in but not strongly….. the full painting and a top and bottom detail shot.
36 x 24 x 2 inch oil on wood panel
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In the studio with encaustic
I’ve been in the studio heating up the encaustic medium and paint again. I kept thinking of what I might take to The Encaustic Conference , in Provincetown, MA so I am playing with encaustic on paper and the hot box………..but I am also thinking of ways or concepts for using the theme ‘7’. I dreamed of ways and got it half way in my mind……….then I would think about it again and think my concept was too literal and not really like I paint. SO……..I just set it aside.
That said…….I did set up of this idea up on a small 12 x 24 panel. Within 30 minutes I could tell, this just was not going to work for me although I had some of it all drawn out on two panels.
I just started mixing paint and before I knew it, I had the 12 x 24 covered with my landscape oriented work again. The encaustic really slows me down. That has it’s good points and bad points. By the end of the day, I decided that next session I would just add a bottom to a multiple panel or diptych piece 24 x 24 and see how that went.
It’s a nice painting….fresh and not over-worked. I’m still looking for something to challenge me but not in such a way as it is not my work. I want the slower evolution of my work to become better and better.
If I come up with something for the ‘7’ show to enter, I’d love it, but if I don’t I will at least have a whole lot of new encaustic paintings in the studio.
This is the untitled diptych painting (taken with i-phone camera)………36 x 24x 2 inches on wood panel, encaustic
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Encaustic paintings complete
Yesterday I finally decided that I was finished on the two 30 x 40 x 2 inch encaustic paintings. As I mentioned before they are painted on cradled wood panels. My goal with these works was to be able to get gestural drawing into the mix with all the beautiful surface that encaustic paint brings to a work.
This is probably more drawing than I usually use in my acrylic paintings since I spent a lot of time concentrating on the drawing aspect over the shape aspect. When my other paintings it is more the opposite.
While these are considered fairly large for work with encaustic, they are not large compared to my other work. SO, this was also a goal of mine to make larger paintings. It is not as quick a process as with application of acrylic or oil since you are working with heavy panels and a medium that will run all over everything if you pour it on………I ended up not doing any pouring. I do think I will continue to use India and Sumi ink in some of my work. It lends a watercolor like quality to the work that I like. I think I need to go see if there are other colors of India ink though as not always will I want it to be this black.
There is something to be said for the slowing down of the process. You can get really lost in the process. Although you can get lost in other media as well, this is somewhat different in that I am mostly painting horizontally and having to put the panel up at the end of the session on the wall to come back later to see what I have. Working between the two panels therefore took a good bit of time. A LOT of viewing and determining if there was a need to add or subtract more. I’m hoping that I have edited out enough. When I got to the point where I didn’t want to take anything out, soften something or add something then the painting is done.
With my next paintings I plan to use the hot pen to see where it will take me mixed in with the ink and wax………Stay tuned.
The titles are not set yet………. These remind me of my work called “Johnson Creek Summer” but they also make me think of the one called “Beneath The Surface”.
UPDATE: I am considering the title “Efflorescence”, although efflorescence is more of a white or pale growth…for my purposes, black and gray can do……………
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Encaustic panels, continued.
I said I was going to put that panel up and work on the other one…………I did, but first I decided to add more gray and black in the lower part of the panel as I thought it looked too much of a vignette.
I then started adding paint to the other panel……….I always need to get enough paint on a canvas or panel so I can work from there.
I’m having second thoughts on all these blacks, whites, grays………..but I am continuing.
I have to face the fact like usual at some point that I am going to have to quit making lots of little nuances and just negative paint the hell out of the painting. When that time comes it will work or it won’t.
I think I may have to go find some small sauce pans so I can pour some large amounts of paint.
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Encaustic painting progress
I’ve spent a few sessions working on one of the 30 x 40 wood panels now. Not to procrastinate, I decided to start with the gestural drawing start of the one I considered not as successful for some reason.
So, far, I have not used anything else but encaustic paint and medium. I have limited my palette to grays, whites, black………but ended up with some areas of warmth in some of the whites. Due to the coolness of the other color, it almost looks ochre. Amazing what relationships will do with color.
I drug my convertible BEST easel into the encaustic room to get a little closer to the hot medium and paint. So far, I have gotten a good amount of paint layers on this work……..and a good bit of scraping back. I think I am going to have to go looking for a lot of small pans with handles so I can haul the hot paint to the panel instead of trying to get so close to the paint.
I am now going to put it aside and work on the other panel so I can get them both to a similar stage of finish before going in to work more.
There are two details and one of the whole panel shown here. I posted another detail on FB yesterday.
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New Encaustic paintings started
Toward the end of 2012, I had a few really large acrylic paintings going……..one for a commission. So due to the holidays, I finished them up.
Still in the back of my mind were those two 30 x 40 x 2 inch wood panels over in the corner waiting for me to come and work on them. I had been considering oil with cold wax medium or encaustic. One day I just decided I would prep for encaustic since I had an idea for something I wanted to do with them. Not a real ordinary thing for me…ideas ahead of painting even one brushstroke. I do now and then though and have had to give in to the idea that sometimes ideas just don’t live up to your expectations. I find that just letting the painting go where it wants is good, whether or not I really have a firm idea or not.
What you say is the idea? Those gesture ‘drawings I did back some time ago as just fun exercises on some large paper I had……..they are 30 x 44 inches………I used black and white paint and a little pencil, ink, and even some pastel……..One night I thought they might be just the thing to try out on the wood panels with encaustic. It would definitely be a challenge as encaustic paint just does not move like acrylic and liquid mediums generally speaking.
SO… right after the kids were gone from the holidays and I had rested up a little and got some errands and appointments over…………into the studio.
I now have two 30 x 40 panels with sumi and india ink brush drawings on them………..added pencil and any other thing I thought would be compatible under encaustic………….they were first coated with encaustic gesso (Holy Grail) from EvansEncaustics. There are other companies out there but Hylla made the first and I love using it.
I also have a layer of clear medium over the surface of both of these pieces and fused in………..ready for the next layer in the next session.
Below are just the photos of the beginning drawings……..
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Meander 23
It was a long but wonderful holiday. I really enjoyed seeing all the kids.
Back to the studio for me today. First thing is I have to finish a painting that I keep looking at across the studio. I finally just had to bite the bullet as the old saying goes and start painting on it. I didn’t like it the way it was… it was dead and the design was static and felt contrived to me. The only way out of that is to paint it all out or just get in there and put in a huge brush load of paint in some color that might work for the painting.
That was the way I went……. a huge brush load of paint right in the middle of the whole 40 x 60 x 2 inch acrylic on canvas. My husband who says he knows nothing of paintings just walked in and I showed him the painting and he said, “I’ve seen a lot of other ones with all the green, blue and yellow…….like the one you brought home from Mississippi.” LOL…. it IS the one I brought home but now it looks a lot different now than that under-painting did. SO, he might have an eye after all. AND, yes I have been painting a lot of green or green and blue or yellow/ochre paintings. What else can I do when I am surrounded by the farm?
This picture is only an I-phone photo but it will suffice for the blog. I still have to paint the sides some more and haul it down to photograph it for my documentation but I think this is it… finished, Meander 23.
Meander 23, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 x 2 inches
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Finished…. Beneath The Surface
I missed one step the other day when I lost my post. I posted a little on FB but now I am finished with this encaustic diptych., titled, Beneath the Surface 4/5, diptych…. 24 x 30 x 2 inches on cradled wood panel.
I just kept adding more encaustic wax paint and medium along with making marks with oil sticks………fusing and scraping. The color for this image is better than the previous iphone photos although when you see it on your monitor it could look different. I think the original is slightly warmer than the painting image. This may be due to reflected sky lighting.
Anyway……….no big techniques here, just my way of painting with encaustic which usually doesn’t involve any tricks, etc. I think I will probably frame this 2 panel piece all in one frame facilitating a hanging problem that happens when paintings are shipped off for display or exhibit.
I am going to be spending the rest of the week cooking and visiting with my family……..maybe back to the studio on Friday if possible. I hope you will all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.
Beneath the Surface, diptych
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Continued Encaustic painting
Back to the studio today……..so far I have not done anything else to the 24 x 12 inch piece I worked on in the last post. The reason is that I decided to just add another panel to the side and continue on. THEN I will see if they both need many more layers. I am really tempted to paint out that upper plane that turns these panels in to a more traditional landscape. The second panel is 24 x 18 so the total size is 24 x 30 x 2 inches now………
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Frustration and awkwardness
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.
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Eagle over the Pines
Sitting down with coffee this morning, I saw a blog posting from my artist friend, Holly Roberts. The blog was discussing birds, etc. which was strange in that we’ve been seeing a hawk around the farm lately a lot and I took a photo of it yesterday.
Reading the blog, brought to mind a collage I made some years back. I had some found elements (don’t we all who work with collage) that I’d never been able to use. One was a photo of a bird silhouette and one was an old crumbling map of my husband’s I lifted from his stuff.
I was at Mississippi Art Colony working so I just asked some of my friends to give me a color to start with arbitrarily. The color was yellow. I looked through all the stuff I had with me and there were the pictures, maps and other papers,, both painted and found.
Putting them all together, I was delighted to find I could use that map and that silhouette……..all in the same collage. When all was finished, I suddenly realized that bird had been waiting for the right place to go. Into a collage with a map of Lake O the Pines. That bird was an eagle and the eagles come to that lake to nest every year.
This is the only painting my son has asked for me to save for him. Oh yeah, and my husband was shocked to see I had used his ‘honey hole’ fishing map.
Eagle Over The Pines acrylic, collage, found and painted papers, 11.5 x 20 inches.
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EncaustiCon 2012
It suddenly occurred to me on this long Labor Day week-end, that I had not posted anything about the upcoming IEA ( International Encaustic Artists) as well as the juried exhibition that will be held in San Antonio, starting September 6-9. This conference has grown from a small retreat out on the west coast for the IEA group to a large gathering of painters/artists who work with encaustic paint.
During the conference, members will be able to network, attend lectures, workshops and demonstrations about art and especially the art that includes encaustic wax.
The juried exhibit this year,EncaustiCon 2012, will be held starting Sept 7, 6-8:30 pm at Gallery Nord, 2009 Northwest Military Highway, San Antonio, TX. The exhibit will feature 67 works from 47 artists. The juror was Paula Berg Owen, President and CEO of Southwest School of Art. I hope to see you there. If you cannot attend, the exhibit will remain up through September 29, 2012.
Oh yeah……… and while looking at all these wonderful works, I will be standing by my accepted painting, The Green Heart of Italy.
The Green Heart of Italy 36 x 48 x 2 inches encaustic/mixed media on 4 wood panels
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