Old find

While cleaning my dining room. I came across a stack of old paintings.  I had forgot about this.  When I turned it over it was dated 1988 and I had filled out a submission slip to be part of a juried art show in Colorado.  It was NOT accepted.  I remember being heart broken.  I had used so many "new" techniques!  I took a picture of snow white and painted it with about 20 layers of Elmers glue. {waiting for each layer to dry}  After it dried, I soaked it in warm water and the paper came off.  I was left with a fairly transparent  image of snow white!  I was so amazed I could transfer an image onto a transparent "sheet" of glue.  of course now there are 20 different ways to get an image transferred and to look transparent. I painted part of the canvas with that Iron pain and then rusted it (I could have just painted rust color) I sewed on individual sequins and beads.   I used plaster from the hardware store to get texture. (we did not have a Home Depo back then) I thought I was so clever using the plaster  and was so disappointed that the jury did not see the effort and creativity that went into making this piece!  It took weeks to make.  Now with all the new products and how to books, I could do it in a night.  

It was nice to revisit this piece and remember what I was willing to do to get a single transparent image that no one even noticed

Sorry about the quality of the images.  Back then my motto was the more gloss the better! This baby has some high gloss finish. I think Ill hang it up as a reminder that short cuts are not always the best.  I would not call this a good piece of art but its a good study in a lot of technique!

New Encaustic

 I bought Olive a book on circus performers. (mostly so I could use the images)  I have made a few pieces...The fat lady, the Chinese acrobats drinking tea while hanging from a wire and one of a boy climbing a tree.   Im not done with them yet, but here are the acrobats.

I am obsessed with color and rarely leave color out of any piece of work, However, this image just begged to be left alone.  I could not come up with a way of incorporating color into the piece with out distracting from it. so I used zink white wax and then added black oil pastels for contrast.  It may have worked with sepia color.  I'm happy with the piece.  I am currently etching a plate to place at the top of the piece.  I have several in the acid and we will see which one turns out the best.  I have ""just hanging around"  kinda lame....I have "one lump or two" kinda funny because I imagine the one hanging upside down pouring the tea will fall and crack his skull.  I have "just me and the boys"  kinda OK because the are so manly hanging from there long hair and drinking tea.  and I have "Is this decaf"  again OK.  kinda funny that he would need to hoist himself up and go prepare another pot on decaf tea.  If you have any good one liners to place on the piece, let me know.  I'm not married to any of the above.  I started them late at night so I might not like any of them n the morning.  But I will have a metal (silver) plate with something witty on the top left of the piece before it is complete!!

Encaustic Class

My son Sidney and I took and encaustic class from michael billie.  We Had a blast.  Sid is very artistic.  He made several great pieces.  

 He really experimented with texture and color.  He developed this technique of layering color on top of color with black in between the layers of color.  It looks so cool.  You really dot get the full effect in a photo.  The piece changes colors depending on how you look at it.  

 Here is a close up of the layers

 He also used a transfer technique to embed an image into the wax.  He found this great old photo of  4 witches sitting down for a cup of tea.

 Close up of the witches.  After he discovered he could layer color and still see all the under color, he used it on everything!

 My first piece in Class.  On a break, we went outside and Sid discovered a hidey hole behind one of the buildings.  We had to crouch down and shimmy against the walls of the building.  But once we got in to this hidden space, we found a lot of great found objects.  I used one of the pieces to create this texture.  I wish I knew Morris Code, I would have made it say something clever! (Maybe it does and I just don't know it!)

Close up of "Morris Code" I so wanted to add color but this piece just begged to be minimal

 This is the second piece I did.  I just wanted to experiment with texture and color.  I love what the wax does naturally.  I just added a small touch of color to bring out the beautiful texture of the wax.

 I love how this green in the crevices of the wax looks like toe moss that grows up at our cabin.

 I cant stop myself from adding blue and Orange (to every thing!)

Taking a note from Sid,  I also used an old image of a witch.  At first I was disappointed that the image did not transfer completely.  But after looking at the piece, I think it really adds to the old, worn look.  I dont think it would have worked if the image had been clean and complete.

Close up of transferred Image.  

I have a feeling things are going to heat up around here!  (With heat guns and hot plates)  What a great medium for the winter.  Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!

paintings

I haven't posted any of my paintings yet, so I thought I would post a few.  I love to paint but I cant leave it alone!  I am compelled to add recycled/found objects.  I painted  Ice resin over the paintings to get a really high gloss.

 This is an old Image from an 1870'd encyclopedia.  I did an entire series on rare or extinct birds.  I LOVE the dodo.

 This was a 1599 Image.  The artist is unknown but he claimed this was an exact rendition of the bird he saw!  The artist named the bird "Harpy".


These 2 poppy paintings were done for the Art Walk fund raiser.  The Theme was "RED"

 

close up of poppies