Workshop Demo painting
I promised I would let my workshop participants see the work I started on the last day with a cadmium yellow ground. This painting bears little resemblance to what it looked like yesterday. That is me… I go with the mood of the day. SO what is the mood of the day? All day it is still hot, cloudy, and then hot sunny. Still, then windy……..maybe another little thunderstorm that doesn’t really have much rain in it again this afternoon.
Here it is……….. tentatively titled……. Sunny or Cloudy?……… 30 x 30 inches, acrylic on canvas
Sunny or Cloudy
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Artist’s Showplace workshop report
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I’m not sure I’m really ready to make a report on my first ever 4 day workshop…………..but ready or not, I will. As mentioned at one point earlier, I felt like I’d jumped off a bridge when I agreed to do a workshop. If you know me, you know I don’t take responsibilities lightly. I used to always worry myself into either being over–prepared or I just would not commit. Sometime in the past decade, I have mellowed a little…. I figured I would give it a shot, so I said yes when Cecie Borschow at Artist’s Showplace Gallery and Studio lofts in Dallas asked me to do this last fall. HA HA…. So I told her I hadn’t a clue what to call this workshop but it would be about Process and Abstraction. It would be using acrylic on canvas or at least large paper. Hence, Abstract: THE PROCESS.
SO……….waiting to see if it ‘made’ or not, I decided not to worry too much too soon. Well, what do you know, it made. I had a brief outline of what I might cover. Then I went out of town for the Fifth Annual Encaustic Conference. I came home and promptly got sick with two weeks to go before the workshop. SO…. no time to worry then either, huh.
I did what I do when I paint…. after all this workshop is about the process and of the kinds of processes abstract painters might use. I was intuitive in what I would cover other than the outline. I would have to evaluate as I went what the attendees wanted and what level they were on when it came to painting abstractly. There are so MANY different processes and products obtained from the processes……and I wanted them to use theirs, and not mine. I did demo every morning since if they didn’t like what I do, they would not have signed up………..and we all talked about our work. I asked questions, they asked questions. I hope I brought a little enlightenment in to what processes I use and that they took away at least one thing that will be an ‘aha’ moment for them.
This was an enormously rewarding experience for me and I hope it was for the eighteen people who attended.
Thank you to Nancy Johnson Standlee for sending me some pictures of the workshop. If others have some, let me know……….I would also love to see the work you finished up after the workshop.
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Oil and cold wax medium
Some time back I was in the shop picking up canvas and wood panels when I saw some small 8 x 10 x 1.5 inch stretched canvases laying out on a table for a very good price. I decided they would be great for trying out oil and cold wax medium paintings so I took them home and promptly added some light weight modeling paste on them. Set aside, I got busy with other things and did not get back to them until yesterday.
I got them out for working today. It took me forever to look for all the things I would need to work with oil……..turpenoid, the wax medium along with some alkyd medium I’d heard was good to mix with the wax medium if you are working on canvas. All those oil paints I had that dated to way back when. I am not joking when I say that some of these paints actually were purchased in the mid 60’s…..Permanent Pigments, remember them! Of course I have many others of various brands. I even have some that had never been taken out of their boxes. Talk about a supply hoarder.
I had a difficult time opening some of the tubes. A few were tossed due to no longer being viable……..by that I mean they would not come out of the tube :>/ Of course if they had been some weird consistency I would have had to toss them as well. I laid out pretty much all the colors or their close relatives on the palette………got out all the spreaders and knives I could find along with any other kind of marking/scraping tools. As if I am going to do much with this little bitty canvases. I put blue tape all around the sides to protect them from messy paint. Yeah, it’s messy and I had forgotten. More due to not drying fast so you get sticky hands and brush/knife handles. I don’t know what I will do with plain white sides. However, that is putting the cart before the horse isn’t it? First I have to make something.
So… I set off putting some orange and the medium mixture on with a big palette knife… hum, with all that texture I had to end up putting in a little brush work to get it in the texture. SO… then I had three orange tones and three of various purples. Oops, still kind of wet but this mixture does get set up fairly fast. I’m not really liking these small panels … I’m used to moving my whole arm on large paintings. I got to diddling around and ended up with the first one looking like a little impressionist landscape with not a lot going for it in the value department. Of course, impressionism is not known for values…….dark ones that is.
I don’t know how I got the little landscape one in the images twice….anyway, it is now long gone and turned into that red one in the next layer.
Oh my… the studio smells like a studio with that faint whiff of oil paint in the air.
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- little landscape
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Interstices and Intervals
For a long time now I’ve realized that my most successful (to me) paintings are those that address the painting of the negative or spaces between. Today, I got up to the studio for two things………to address the interstices in my paintings more consciously and to work with some new paint that had been sent to me to try.
Maybe I bit off more than I needed to with working with new paint AND trying to ‘think’ more :>). BUT maybe not. It is exhilarating and not a little scary when you venture out of your comfort zone. I didn’t go too far but maybe there is a slight difference.
The paint is Chroma Atelier Interactive acrylic. It was their largest jars and a good selection although I had some substitutions from my usual set up of a palette. I’m used to all the Cadmiums and Alizarin Crimson in the Historical dark hue. I will say the orange I made from the colors sent is beautiful though and I can get by for some paintings with a mixture of crimson, magenta and a mixture for my violet. I didn’t even open the Thalo blue though…although maybe for some other paintings I could give it a go.
The first thing is that this paint can be let dry like ordinary acrylic or misted with water or mixed with a medium that can slow down the drying process considerably. When I read about the slowness of just misting water, I figured…oops this not going to be my thing. I love drying fast, working fast and then being able to cover up or layer over…scumble is my middle name. But I promised so I had to get going. I had two 36 x 24 canvases left with a purple ground on them left from colony. I covered over the purple with some ochre and then started with the Chroma colors.
Oops, again…………this stuff is not creamy, it’s a little hard to move around. The viscosity is really different. If you spray water on a color on the palette is is more fluid but not like my other paints. It didn’t flow from my brush when I started covering over a lot of lines I made on the canvas with charcoal. Hummm..I had not intended to use the medium if it slowed down the drying but I poured some out on the palette and it works much better with the paint than just water. I just used the medium clear mid viscosity medium. I would compare it to fluid medium in other acrylics. I will have to investigate the thicker medium that is supposed to make the paint ‘buttery’ as I like buttery but I don’t want to slow down the drying.
I finally got into the hang of working with it but without a lot of color mixing. To really get more paint down on the canvases this size I had to start mixing in some of my other paints as large amounts of neutrals to go with the stronger Chroma colors I had laid down.
During all this time I was thinking of those intervals I mentioned before. There will be more of these paintings with various interstices that I see everywhere… in the fences, in the trees, plants, hills and planes of my paintings.
SO… these paints will take some getting used to… but they can work for you especially if you want a longer drying time if you are switching from oil to acrylic or if you suddenly decide you need to go back in and try to re-open some areas for more blending.
Here is the diptych…….Interstices..……… 36 x 48………acrylic on 2 canvases.
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Counting down to THE Encaustic Conference
Counting down the days until the 5th Annual Encaustic Conference………..only about 16 to go before heading off to Dallas to be prepared for the flight out to Boston and then on to Provincetown. I’ve never been so this will be especially fun this time.
I painted a special painting hoping it would be included in the beeline show…..regretfully, not. The other two are works that I can show in galleries or exhibition venues. This one is only for that show so I suppose it will end up being changed at some point or just hung in my studio until such time as I run out of space to hang things. I’m sorry it is too large for my suitcase or I would take it for the Hotel Fair.
I impulsively made this painting. This is not usual for me to be so impulsive with an actual plan in mind. I had to work really hard to fasten the ‘letter/envelope’ to the board as it was so impregnated with wax I was figuring it wouldn’t stay stuck down. So I found some little brass hinges to attach it so it could open and close. It also hangs loose from the backing panel except for the hinges.
The painting is a 20 x 20 x 2 inch panel with encaustic wax, and a waxed ‘envelope’ made of Stonehenge paper coated with encaustic medium. Before I ‘waxed’ the paper, I addressed it……..
FROM: TX to MA…… TO: Encaustic Conference… P-town, MA.
Inside the flap, I wrote: Dear other artists working in wax. Just to let you know______you are the ‘best’. I am so happy to ‘bee’ joining you for our conference 2011____P-town here I come. Warmly yours, CMcClure
It was a fun to make painting…….It brought to mind a long conversation so many of us working in wax had been discussing on FB. Are we ‘encaustic artists’, or just artists who happened to be working in wax.
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Back to the ranch
Watery 40 x 40 inches acrylic on canvas
Whew… what a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. Colony and lots of painting time…then home to develop some kind of chest cold that laid me out for a week. Then down to Houston to the Hunting Art Prize Gala. It was a great experience. The time was far too short for all the artists to really get around to see all the work as you should have. It was nice meeting so many people who love to look and talk about art and to do a little networking with other artists.
This week, it was back to Houston to pick up my painting that was featured at the Prize Gala…………and to meet with a gallery owner to leave the painting and five others in the gallery. I am very pleased to announce my association with the Jack Meier Gallery, 2310 Bissonnet. The gallery is a long time Houston gallery representing many very fine figurative and a few abstract artists. I’m looking forward to getting to know Houston a little better.
This is one of the acrylic paintings I left with the gallery…………. Watery, 40 x 40, acrylic on canvas. Also a good sized (30 x 30) encaustic on wood panel painting titled Pink Sky.
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Colony bound
Whew… it’s 90 degrees here at 5:30pm. I just got my SUV loaded for colony with a little help from my two helpers. The wind almost blew the canvases and panels surrounding my vehicle away… SO I had to load them a little faster and less thoughtfully than usual. It was a challenge to get it all in. I still don’t have my little cooler, and my clothes, etc. loaded. I guess the only place for them to go is in the front seat and floorboard.
I have now decided that low carb diet or not, next time I WILL NOT TAKE FOOD. It is a pain in the rear to try to haul food with you and it’s only a little bit anyway. One of the numerous perks of colony is not cooking…nothing but art talks and painting…sitting around with the best friends an artist could find.All those soft drinks are something I never take either… ah ha..the wine, yeah..not leaving that behind…OR the 9 canvases. After all I don’t know what I am going to paint so I need all kinds of sizes and orientations. I wanted to take something this time to enter in the show. I can hope that I don’t have to bring them back and that they will get in and lighten my load a little. I suppose I can’t stop and shop on the way across LA now…no where to put another ounce.
Yaaay, Mississippi Art Colony….Here I come…first thing in the morning!
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Meander 4
I’ve been working a lot with encaustic lately so I let the beginnings of an acrylic painting wait. Not a good idea if you want to continue your conversation with that painting. I had a purple ground on the painting. It really wasn’t working for me by the time I got back to it. You know how it is…the gesture is wrong, you are just ‘off’.
Yesterday late I decided to just start working it over with a warm ochre color and go from there. I dug out pencils, pastels, paints and any other thing I could think of to shake things up a little. I got a good base going…or at least something to paint into and over.
Today I got going on it a lot more and it probably is finished……………it went from a cool, horizontal purple ground to a warm vertical painting with the feeling of the current Meander series paintings. I consider it finished and titled it Meander 4.
Meander 4 acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 x 1.5 inches
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Houston and back
Whew…. whirlwind trip to Houston from the ranch yesterday morning. I loaded up the SUV with work to show some art professionals I have been talking with…and my Hunting Art Prize painting and headed to Houston about 8 am. Being slow as I am getting ready to go anywhere the past few years, I had to get up at 6am..plus I ‘really’ woke up at 5am.
I got to the drop off at the art services company checking in the work for the competition just before noon. Little Miss Garmin Nuvi gave me all the directions. I did have a back up print out though, just in case. I then headed over to check out the location where I would meet with the consultant and dealer. I found it and figured I had about 3 hours to kill until our appointment. I guess the ‘great power’ was there to help me have a smooth day. I got a call within 15 minutes telling me the schedule was moved up if that was OK with me…. Yes – Yes, so we all met. I think they liked my work. I’ll be waiting to see how it goes.
Back home I headed by 1pm……………. 8 hours driving, 1 hour meeting. LONG DAY! but productive………..now to get all the work out of the SUV and back into the studio. I have new panels and canvases on order and they are ready. I’ll pick them up tomorrow. Nothing like being ‘prepared’ for anything.
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Loading up for Houston
Meander 3
acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 inches
Yaay… got all the work in my Explorer to take to Houston tomorrow. Needing rain like we do here on the ranch, I still hope for none on my way to Houston and back. I will have a long day ahead of me with a 4-hour drive to drop off my entry for the Hunting Art Prize.
After I get through with that, I am on to meet with some art professionals about my work…SO, loaded up some more work just in case they want to see something in person.
One of the paintings I am taking is the third in a series I titled Meander. Other than my entry to HAP, this is the largest piece I am taking with me.
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Work for beeline show
Two down, one to go, if I can get another encaustic painting done to enter for the Beeline show in Provincetown, MA. I always hate to send in an entry to a show without sending as many pieces as they allow.
Hum….now what can I do now to come up with another one to generally fit the theme of BEELINE??? Do you remember how I keep mentioning I hate themes… why do they come around so often!
Today on FB there was a small discussion about entering shows… facing rejection and all that stuff we artists contend with every day, year after year. Joanne Mattera, the founder of THE Encaustic Conference reminded us of a great blog post she had up some time back on rejection. Great article all artists should read now and then.
I can hope I won’t be going to read it again for awhile. Pictures after the jury comes in.
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Tidepools
Earlier in the week, I had decided that three of the encaustic monotypes I worked on way back when I first got Paula Roland’s HotBox, were just perfect to mount on a new panel I had. It was serendipity that the 24 x 12 x 2 inch panel was perfect to stack the three monotypes with a little border around them. I added more wax to the backs of the monotypes so they would have lots of wax to “stick”, painted a background on the panel with the monotypes in mind.
Then I hit a block when I began to get worried that these papers coated with so much wax would not adhere properly to the waxed board. My whole intent with getting the hot box was to use monotypes this way or to cut them up to use as collage elements. SO it was a real downer to think they might not stick well enough. I went online asking around and people came up with all kinds of good ideas. However none of them would work well with these paintings in my opinion. In fact I had already used some brass hinges on another piece I intend to let hang off the board but this piece just doesn’t call for anything else. SO… I gently heated the board surface, laid the pieces down, pressed firmly and then started building up the edges to come up closer around the paper edges. I think this will do it.
I love the motion, gesture, flow and rhythm in these little pieces. I titled it, Tidepools.
Tidepools encaustic monotype on wood panel 24x12x2
Tidepools, encaustic monotype triptych on wood panel, 24 x 12 x 2 inches.
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