I just love the way these old watercolor pans look: rich, dense color. I created this little assemblage by gluing watercolor paper to a board, stamping it, then gluing on the little pans. Enjoy - thanks for stopping by!
30/30 Day 7
This was a fun little collage; I've always been inspired by the connection between music and photography. Using the negative as a collage element brings it into a new realm of art-making, and is a comment on how irrelevant film has become to photography for so many young artists - a fact I'm reminded of daily by my students. Pasting on the old, dry watercolor pan underscores the notion of using art materials as the subject. Enjoy and thanks for visiting!
30/30 Challenge Day 2
This little collage was inspired by the women in my little artist book class this summer. Breaking some rules I've always worked by: covering the entire surface of the piece, making things big, making things match, avoiding the number 13. 13 has been lucky for me so I'm celebrating it here. Enjoy and thank you for visiting.
Day 30 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This painting began with several layers of encaustic medium, fused between with the heat gun. I used oil sticks to get the vibrant colors, fusing while the oil was still wet enough to move around the composition. I used the letter set to place the text, and metal stamps for the crown likeness. These were all filled with oil stick, then the excess was wiped away.
This is my little "me too" painting. Thanks for visiting!
Day 28 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This piece began as an experiment in alcohol inks. I started with a gesso'd ground - a clear white surface. I painted a design with the inks but had difficulty getting the effect I was after. I lived with the painting for a number of days and then decided to coat it with about 8 layers of wax medium (fused in between with the heat gun). Some of the design showed through and the colors reminded me of a map-weave I had on hand. I pushed the weave into the surface, then added a couple of other strips of map. Finally the piece was coated with medium containing a rose hue, which I matched with the pinkish twine.
This piece reminds me of a frosted cake; the texture is everything I hope for when I set out to delve deep into the wax. Thanks for visiting!
Day 27 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This is a simple, straightforward celebration of a photograph I took several years ago on a friend's porch. This beautiful and intricate spider's web was captivating. I changed the color photograph to black and white and then printed the image on transparent paper. It was floated onto a white-gessoed ground with seven layers of encaustic medium (fused between each layer with the heat gun, of course). One thin layer of clear medium was painted over the image to give it a creamy look.
Sometimes simple is best, and the image speaks for itself. Thanks for visiting!
Day 22 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This piece is a re-worked map assemblage. I re-used the ground, with the map adhered to the surface. Several layers of encaustic medium were built up to create a surface that would hold the heavy elements of the tile, bottle and rusty object - all found at Dead Horse Bay last spring. The elements were assembled and then more layers of clear wax were added to bind it all together.
I always enjoy working with rusty and found objects; I love the color and the patina. Thanks for visiting!
Day 21 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This piece began with a mapweave. I photographed one of my favorite weaves - northpole/southpole - and then printed it on rice paper. The ground was prepared with 8-10 coats of encaustic medium, and the top layers were liquified with the heat gun. I floated the image onto the melted wax and smoothed it down. 2 more layers of wax coated the image and I incised the design, filling it with rust-colored alcohol ink. The rusty piece was pushed into the soft wax and then fused into place. Finally, several strands of multi-colored twine was fused into the rusty piece and allowed to drape over the elements.
I enjoyed making this unplanned aseemblage. I'm sure I'll go back to it and make some changes in the coming weeks as it has a certain pull. Thanks for visiting!
Day 20 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This piece started with 9-10 layers of encaustic medium, fused between layers with the heat gun. I wanted to create this 3-dimensional thread grid, and I wanted the threads to appear to float above the medium. Each layer of threads was coated with 2 more layers of medium (fused in between :) ) to create a transparent appearance. This piece was actually made last week, as a back-up in case I missed a day in the studio. Today was a full-day teaching gig so I'm posting this piece now.
I like the simplicity, the colors, and the creamy-ness of the wax. I think it works nicely with the button piece from Day 9. Thanks for visiting!
Day 15 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
This piece started with a section of an encaustic collage I created 2 years ago using an image of CPR dolls I took with the iPhone. I cut the waxed image to 6 x 6 and fused it to the ground so that it was flush to the edges. I then created the landscape by incising the mountains with the pin tool and incising the river along the natural color divisions in the old piece. I filled the channels with alcohol inks and then used inks and oil sticks to enhance the landscape around the figure. I left the surface clean after fusing lightly, not wanting to obscure the image with wax this time.
I'm really pleased with this piece, especially the process of following the natural variations in color to reveal the hidden landscape. Thanks for visiting!
