Melange Team on You Tube

Melange Team member Indira, from Dharma Karma Arts, puts together a monthly You Tube video of members' work.  Lots of diversity in this little group!

Altered Art Upcycled Glass Jar by Whyte

If you have a spare minute, we'd be thrilled if you would check it out and leave a comment.

Trying Out Photo Transfers with Encaustic

This was another new technique for me with encaustic.  Actually I tried out a couple of new techniques in these two pieces.

Yawn of Fire - 6x8" Encaustic on cradled board

I had copies made of my poppy photos on a colour copier at the local stationery store.  The transfer is done by burnishing the photo, right side down, on to the warm wax.   After carefully removing the paper by gently rubbing with my fingertips and water and letting it dry, I heat fused the transfer to the layer of wax below.  This part is tricky because if you over do it, the toner dissolves away in the wax.

Papaver - 6x8" Encaustic on cradled board

Another technique I used in these two pieces was leaf printing.  After painting on a couple of layers of encaustic paint and fusing them to the layer below, I used poppy leaves to make impressions into the warm wax.  After painting over the leaves with another colour of encaustic paint and then fusing that layer, I removed the leaves from the still warm wax and then carefully fused the leaf prints.  Both pieces are embellished with poppy centres that I had pressed and dried in the spring.

Melange Team Monthly Challenge (Rain)

This month's challenge prompt on the Melange Team blog is "Rain."  My ideas for this one were as dried up as our forests right now but while creating a different piece yesterday, this one evolved.

MacArthur Park - Encaustic Mixed Media - 8x8 cradled board

This is my favourite encaustic painting so far.  I want to sing MacArthur Park every time I look at it but hopefully I get that out of my system before I show it anywhere!

Binta Fire (Encaustic)

For most of August we have been plagued with the constant smoke from fires to the west and east of us.  The sun in late afternoon and early evening was often a blazing ball of red.

Binta Fire - Encaustic  on cradled board - 12x12

 

 

 

 

Encaustic was a natural choice for this painting, both for its association to heat and fire and for its unpredictable nature.

Maids and Music (More Encaustic)

I found an old set of photo prints of famous paintings at an antique mall last spring.  Most of the prints were missing from the set and the remaining ones are brittle and foxing.  I used one in 'Playmates' a few days ago (John S. Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose).  I really liked the way the encaustic medium made the image translucent and brought out the sepia tones in it so I tried another one yesterday.  In this piece, Maids and Music, I used the print of The Golden Stairs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

Encaustic collage. 8x10 on cradled board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I included music, a decorative strip cut from kraft paper and lightly touched with gold pigment ink, mulberry paper with a gold pattern, a Japanese maple leaf and Love-in-a-mist blossom, and burnt umber encaustic paint.  The layers of encaustic medium give the piece a dreamy quality and some depth so it's like looking into the past.

Another Day...the same painting...sort of

Today I touched up the piece I started on Friday.  I think I went a little far.  I do prefer the end result though.

Before

After (Playmates)

I haven't figured out how to do encaustics and keep my space tidy.  Who am I kidding?  I haven't figured out how to do anything and keep my space tidy.  It's just not in my nature.  But this is pretty bad, even for me.  I have wax everywhere.

Encaustic Day 3, still having fun...

...but I have to admit, I'm a wee bit frustrated, too.  The learning curve is climbing.  I would sure love a workshop right about now!

The first thing I did was 'fix' my Dream piece from yesterday.  I could see that the balance wasn't right as soon as I posted it so here are the before and after.

This next piece is a mixed media collage.  It's not the piece I started out doing.  The gummy heap of wax from that effort is set aside for another day.  For this one  I used music, end paper from an old book, pressed flowers, handmade papers and a tjap impressed into the wax.  I coloured the incised lines with oil stick and wiped away the excess.  Clear encaustic medium was used on each  layer.

I can already see some changes I'd like to make but not today and maybe not at all.  We'll see.