Fourth of the four paintings
Today, I finally got the chance to go up and work on the last of the four oil/cold wax medium paintings I started in Dallas at the first of the month. I really liked this combination of colors… magenta, red, orange,gold-ochre, etc. But the painting was not finished.
I didn’t know whether or not I would do what I did with the last one and almost totally re-paint it or not. I slathered a little cold wax medium on the top of the fairly dried paint and used a few oil paint sticks……opened up my palette to look at the colors I had there that might work with this one. I did use some sticks but also brayered them down a little softening the edges that I made with the sticks and an occasional brush mark or two.
I kept looking at it as I tried to keep layering some more paint on the other paintings wooden panel edges………finally, I decided this is where I am leaving it, at least for now. It is a blessing and a curse like pastels that you can keep coming back and painting more later if you wish without much difficulty as long as you don’t put a final varnish on top. AND cold wax medium and oil paintings generally do not have one unless you want a glossier finish.
I even started thinking of titles………. This one… Out of the Clearing 2.
This is the way I left it in the studio today.
Out of the Clearing 2, oil on 20 x 20 x 2 inch wood panel
The painting below is where I started……..
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What a mess but what a joy!
All I can say short and sweet is……..I ‘really’ messed up this other 20 x 20 inch panel oil painting when I got around to going to work on it again. I don’t know about you but when I work and then set something aside, most times I cannot go back in with the same feeling, gesture, mark, etc. the start had. SO I always (almost always) end up re-working the whole thing……especially something as small as a 20 x 20.
The image below is the beginning of this studio session….or I might say, the end of the previous one back at the first of the month.
Third start oil on panel
It had some things going for it… a soft, muted, simple quality that had some marks in it I really liked. But, also, dull. That’s the problem as we all know… if you like them, then you protect them. A real no-no and I know it well. What the heck, I had to do something so I just got out lighter paint and just spread it all over the place…….OH NO. Didn’t look good at all. I really screwed up. Of course, I rely on the old ‘fly by the seat of my pants and wish hard mode”…..and figure this is all for the best. It didn’t look like me anyway so I can now be free to do anything else I want and it can’t be worse.
The joy……I got out those wonderful R & F pigment/paint sticks I have been buying. I really don’t have a clue how to really use them. I have watched a video or two and used them to make some good, big marks that I then painted back into. Other than that!
However, if there is something more luscious and sensuous to apply to a painting, I have not found it before this. OMG, I need to buy stock and I will need money to buy more of these. Whether or not the painting is successful or not, I love the process of using these sticks.
End of the day, I have this painting………much more the way my paintings look gesture-wise than brayered and squeegeed although that makes a wonderful start and background for the paint sticks to work into. Now to see how long they take to dry………..and IF I will still like this when I get to the studio next time.
Oil Stick-cold wax 3 next stage
Looks like there is a little glare on the lower left areas……..end of day, i-phone photo but will do for the blog.
Anyone have lots of tips on pigment sticks, let me know.
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Working with different mediums
As some of you know, I went to a workshop with a wonderful artist… Rebecca Crowell in Dallas earlier in the month. Before I left I started the last painting……..very large one, too, so I had to complete it before I got back to working with the panels and oil paintings that I started at that workshop.
Today I have finally been back at work on these ‘starts’…. or I call them that. Who knows, the starts may look better by the time I get through than the finished paintings. One thing about working with oil and cold wax medium is that it is very easy to just keep getting a whole different painting each and every time you work on it. That is if you are not using brushes but are using squeegees and brayers. Not that you cannot use a brush, but I am trying to use the paint in a thinner application to build up layers and also hopefully dry a little faster. In fact, over time I probably will use a brush as I was itching to get one out to do some negative painting on these two that I worked on today. BUT, I think I will still do the preliminary work with the squeegees and brayers to keep it drying faster until I know where I am going with the painting.
These pieces are 20 x 20 x 2 inch wood panels I bought from a local canvas shop…..great people, making a wonderful product, at a good price as well as made in the USA….. Sunbelt Manufacturing in Longview, TX.
One piece…….when I left the workshop looked like this.
early stage when I left the workshop
This is what it looked like after I worked on it a little more today. I kept turning it around…and it looks possibly more contemporary turned in the opposite direction but for some reason I like it this way, at least at this stage. This could be an intermediate stage or the final one. Who knows right now? I need to keep looking more.
Intermediate or final version
Here is the second one that I worked on today.
early version of painting 2 (also labeled 4 on the image file)
This painting was just TOO brightly a permanent green. My idea was to break up some of that with some softer, warmer greens and then go from there. WELL… you know how I said you can get a new painting…not quite but also a different look. It could have been drastically different but I softened and changed and it started taking on a better look. These photos are just I-phone pictures so sometimes the glare even without a flash makes for bad color. They are not what I call true to color. Sometimes I get good ones, sometimes not. This second painting photo is more intense and has more contrast..especially the too light violet in the bottom right.
2nd painting intermediate stage
Like the first one, I will keep looking to see if I like this new version or if I need to work more on both.
I, also, determined before I went that I am going to gesso the sides of these panels and paint the sides like I do my acrylic paintings. I just have not been liking MY work with the bare wood sides. You can only imagine how much paint ended up on me as I would forget and pick them up. Next time, I will add paint on the sides as I start like I do with acrylic paintings.
I will work on the other two next session…. put them all there on the side of the room to just evaluate for a time.
All this is a little out of my comfort zone working with a medium I haven’t used since the 60’s BUT it’s good to shake things up now and then.
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Renewal
Oh yeah…. really got back into painting on this diptych. So cool to be back to work and getting something done. I have been bogged down for months.
I THINK this painting is done ….I will make sure before hauling it down for photos though by looking at it over and over for a short while. The title reflects the way I feel. Good days in the studio make up for all the bad ones.
The title………..RENEWAL, 48 x 96 inches, acrylic on canvas. this is only an I-phone photo but it looks pretty good on my computer. I am amazed sometimes at the I-phone photos.
Renewal… 48 x 96, acrylic on 2 canvases
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Back in the studio- Green diptych
WoW……..it has been a long time. I didn’t end up blogging from Italy much this time due to posting on Face Book.
Now I hope I am recuperated……so I started a new diptych. Both canvases are 48 x 48 inches. They will probably go together as a diptych but most of the times the two canvases can also stand alone. I started this work just before I left for an oil painting workshop in Dallas which I will report on in a later post. So much fun using cold wax medium.
This work has a toned and textured canvas……..green, of course. No..not of course, as many times the work will take on an entirely different color by the time I get through. This one, I think will remain dominated by green.
The first toning, etc along with some mark making with chalk pastel is shown below.
In progress 48 x 96 inches….2 panels, acrylic on 2 canvases
It wasn’t my intent to make a forest or green underwater world……..but with the slopping on of the acrylic paint, it could certainly be developed that way. Nothing is delineated to makes any subject. The painting will just progress as it will direct. I try to listen.
The next work session, I set up my usual palette of colors but also make up one just for larger amounts of paint. You can tell I will need a lot. SO, with varying shades and tints of green with some bits of the other colors from the basic palette to vary the color, I just started in on the left panel. One color and brush stroke influences the next. Now and then I wipe my brush or knife off on the other canvas just to keep bits of those colors integrated into the whole of the two canvases.
I finally reach a time when I think it is time to stop for the day. I didn’t work for hours on end. That is not my usual way to work. I like to sit back, look and then come back later and let the painting surprise me. Some times it’s more of a shock…good or bad.
Here is a picture of what is happening with the third layer……but as I said, mostly on the left side. I’ll post the finished work next post.
Here is a close-up of a small area.
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Beginning the second week.
We’ve had a few days of rain so it was yesterday.. Monday, May 21 when we ventured out in the afternoon and evening. This time returning to Citta della Pieve, a charming town not too far away.
Then on then on to Chiusi, over in Tuscany. It is home to the Etruscan Museum with the most work of its kind to be seen anywhere.
I was fascinated by these guys… this museum was well worth our time there.
Just look at those faces………
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First week…..
Time is flying by. Tomorrow ..a week…wow. We have been to Orvieto, then to Perugia and then Cortona another day………then yesterday, Todi and Sienna.
Our little Fiat Punto is making the miles…Â 
I’m beginning to think Todi might always have a lot of stormy skies or rain rolling in… Last time huge storms rolled in on us, later inspiring a few paintings.
We were disappointed in Cortona not to find our glass jewelry artisan that we found last trip… not to be deterred, I did find a great looking handbag. It’s a little big, but as the salesman noted…..”for every day, you do not have to fill it up.” Â LOL.
Todi was a stop for us on the way to Siena where we saw the gorgeous Duomo again. Of course, remembering the beautiful red handbag I got there last time, we had to make some of the shopping streets………this time I fell in love with an amber and sterling ring…really cool …and a blue glass inexpensive dome style ring. By the time you walk this much up and down, you might consider looking at shoes. I did…comfy kind but much to the relief of the old pocketbook……not in my size.
The reason we went to Perugia the second day was something went wrong with the connections to the card for Carolyn’s new wonderful camera. Our hosts found a place there with an authorized service center so we are crossing our fingers that they will be able to fix it. Maybe next week………in the meantime, I-phone/I-pad to the rescue.
In Sienna, a huge amount of people showed up for what looked like antique and luxury sports car showing…….we also enjoyed a nice lunch at a bistro right at the Duomo piazza….veal scallopini Limone……
Siena May 19, 2012
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Day 1 & 2 Umbria Italy
Hummm.. what to say, what to say! We were SO tired the day we arrived that all we did that day (was it only yesterday??)..was check into the agritourisimo, go to the market for a few things to start, and then took a one hour nap during the time the market was closed in the afternoon. In the evening, we had our first night’s dinner at Montegabbione nearby. We slept until 11:30 Italy time…..it will take a few days to acclimate. So, in the afternoon yesterday, we traveled over to Orvieto (about 35k away). Being there in the late afternoon and with some sun this time was great. It was also less crowded this time. I took some pics as did Carolyn, but I found myself taking more of the cracked marble floor in front of the cathedral doors as well the sides of a wall on another building across the piazza. This cathedral is one as of the most beautiful around. I really fell in love with this particular ‘tree-like’ form that appears to come out of the sides of the building walls.
  
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Taking an afternoon break with Journeys To Abstraction
What a great time to receive my copy of the new book, Journeys to Abstraction, by Sue St. John…….. I have two paintings included in this book…..one acrylic on canvas, and one encaustic/mixed media on wood panels.
I have have been worrying around with packing, un-packing, re-arranging for my month long trip to Italy.
A good break was called for and this book provided me a little down time. I have been introduced to a number of artists I didn’t know before and that is always a lot of fun. The text and the copies of the work is also really great. I know that ebooks might be the future, but I still mostly enjoy holding that book in my hands and sitting down to browse through the book wherever I might open it.
Thank you for including me in this book and your first e-book, Sue…….
To read and learn more about Sue.……..Or go to Amazon.com to place an order
Journeys to Abstraction
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 Author: Sue St.John
Publisher:Â North Light Books,
Release Date: April/May 2012
Hardcover * 192 pages * full color * step by steps
OR to buy this new book from Amazon..Â
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Workshop with Deborah Kapoor
I HAVE returned. I had been looking forward to meeting Deborah Kapoor ever since I signed up for her workshop at the Encaustic Center in Richardson, TX. It concerned making art work 2-d to 3d, which is something I don’t do but now and then have a urge to do but just do not know how to go about learning how to make it all happen.
It’s a little hard to convey what you did or learned from this sort of workshop. It is not a technique demo type learning experience. Deborah gave us a plastic bag of various materials like 4 inch squares of stainless steel mesh, paper napkins, twist ties and that sort of thing. We were to all use our own aesthetics of art making to use these materials or anything else we brought with us or could scrounge up to make something that would not be the usual ‘hang it on the wall traditional work’. The work that everyone did was totally different than anyone else’s.
Deborah showed us a lot of work she had encountered and the processes and thoughts behind these works were discussed. Although we worked… we talked and watched all this more than making something to be taken home as a finished piece of work.
We did all make something with one of the stainless mesh screens though……… I can tell you ..I panicked, what in the heck and I going to do with a piece of wire mesh? Â I pulled the outer edges until 6 or more rows were left unbraided.. we twisted 3-4 strands together all the way around… then started trying to add other elements in whatever way you could think of. I started folding and pleating mine. It started making me imagine the creek bed. I know… a far-fetched stretch for a piece of wire screen. I was shocked when we were showing them that Deborah did see it before I said anything as ‘landscape‘ in feel……..good gosh, maybe the idea was not so far-fetched as I thought.
Anyway, we set all that aside and kept up our immersion into how all kinds of forms could be made and joined or connected. The next day, working on something new, I pulled out the Stonehenge paper I brought with me…along with a ton of other stuff I thought it possible I might use or need. I felt lost… so I just started on that paper like I would my other collage work (work I haven’t done in quite some time). I was interested in the past in ‘pleating’ paper but never had gotten around to doing it. SO… this was the time to do it. The piece I will show here has collage elements from various places along with that paper I pleated and sewed down with black thread with a darning needle. I did not put encaustic on that pleated paper as I wanted the paper to stay white and a different look than all the other work that is embedded with wax. It was an intuitive process like most of my work. It built on itself. Getting toward the end of the day, I picked up that little stainless steel mesh piece and just dropped it down on the work……………WOW, I liked where it landed so I then attached it right there with more thread.
This is as much of the process of this piece as I can remember now…….I like it but now have to consider how I can disply this besides putting it into some kind of traditonal frame (which it could look good in)……..find some other ‘connections’.
This workshop was about making work that is meaningful, while using your personal process but thinking of ways you might display it in a more non-traditional way. It was about making 3-d work… even if it is 2-d, but a little more projected from the surface like mine. It was about finding new ways to make connections.
Oh yeah… how can I forget… Deborah is a font of knowledge about how to get your work out there, being professional… I could go on and on.
3-d collage on paper, approximately 12 x 12 inches
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WiseEarth : Art & Land in Texas
WiseEarth : Art & Land in Texas
February 10-March 3, 2012
Earthwise Gallery
728 N. Elm Street
Denton, TX 76201
I am fortunate to have been chosen to show five of my encaustic on wood panel paintings at this 1st annual exhibit in Denton, TX.
The works chosen by curator, Katy Crocker are my Johnson Creek, Summer series. …1-5.
This work was inspired by the summer here on the ranch. It was HOT to say the least…many days of 105 degrees, drying up pastures…even almost dried up Johnson Creek that runs into our small lake. My studio looks out over the creek line. Â It is always inspirational to me.
These pieces are all encaustic paint on cradled wood panels………10 x 10 x 2 inches.
I hope any of you who happen to live near Denton, will take the time to go by and see the show AND look around at  Earthwise Gardens. The festival should also be a lot of fun. http://wiseearthart.tumblr.com/artists
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Eight small paintings
I’ve kept chugging along with working on the eight 16 x 16″ paintings. Just as I get two I like, I go on to others and before you know it I have multiples of ‘two”… LOL.
I now have eight but they still look a little like multiples of two. Maybe if they are re-arranged that won’t be as apparent. The first two have a lot more of an orange in the ground as well but I like them as they are so I hesitate to ‘fix’ them to go with the others.
They are not varnished yet or signed so I can always make a few adjustments but I think I can say these are about done. They will be hung as a group 5 or 7 of them probably anyway instead of all eight.
Ready for something really big next OR get out the wax.
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