Of Bees and Trees - The paintings

One last catch-up post because I said I would blog about my art show and then I didn't and 2014 is almost over. 

I had a show of my encaustic paintings, Of Bees and Trees, at the Smithers Art Gallery from Oct 28 - Nov 26 so much of the year was spent either painting or stressing about the paintings that I needed to get done.  It was kind of scary to put myself out there like that but I got lots of positive feedback and sold a few paintings, too.  Here are a few pieces from the show.

Sunflower, Good Morning, Encaustic, 24x24"

White Rose, Encaustic, 24x24"

Poppies I, Encaustic, 8x24"

Poppies II, Encaustic, 8x24"

Yellow Lily in Red Bowl, Encaustic, 24x24"

One with the Sun, Encaustic, 24x24"

Autumn Beauty, Encaustic, 8x24"

Now I am putting away my encaustic paints until next summer when I can work outside or in my studio with the door wide open.

Of Bees and Trees!

Two weeks until my show!  I will be having a showing of my encaustic paintings at the Smithers Art Gallery from October 28th through November 26th.  I'm nervous and excited!  I'll be sharing the gallery with feature artist, Leif Ostlund, a magnificent oil painter!  I'm looking forward to seeing his work in person.

My work will be shown in the part of the gallery known as the mini gallery.  It's in the main gallery room but it's a dedicated space that is a bit less intimidating to fill than the larger display area.  We'll be hanging the show on the 26th.  I have lots of new works ready for this show and now I'm working on some smaller pieces and some encaustic cards.  I'll share what I've been doing once the show has been hung and I can breathe again.

Opening night is Saturday, November 1st from 7-9 pm.

60 in 60 Days 47-60!!

Well, true to my nature, I managed to procrastinate through the blogging part of this entire self-challenge.  I don't have to challenge myself to do something creative every day because that's just how I live.  It's like breathing.  I don't have to think about it or plan for it, I just do it.  Now, blogging about it, that's another story.

I want to be a good blogger but not if I have to commit to making time for it on a regular basis.  If there is one thing that I have learned in 60 years it's this; I don't like committing my time.  It's so easy to say I'll do something that involves a future time but, procrastination being what it is, that future time becomes the present and then it's panic time!  So I can either be a mediocre blogger on a regular basis or a good blogger when I feel like it.

So, today is the big day and I am just now posting about Days 47-60.

I worked on encaustic paintings for a show this fall at the Smithers Art Gallery. 

Sunflower, Encaustic on cradled board, 24x24

I worked on a lot of different earrings and other jewelry pieces for my table at a summer music festival. 

Earrings made from obsolete Canadian copper pennies

And I took hundreds of photographs! 

This young buck stopped to pose for me before he ran off into the trees.

I'll be back again sometime soon-ish, or a bit later, but eventually I'll post again and I hope you'll be back, too!  Thanks for stopping by.

60in60 Days Nine to Thirteen

I haven't posted for a few days because, even though I did meet my challenge to do something creative every day, I didn't have anything completed to show for it.

I started a wrap bracelet on Day 9.  On Day 10 I was away all day so my creative effort was a photograph of the sunset at the end of the day.  More hummingbird photos on Day 11.  Day 12 and 13 were the weekend so I spent lots of time in my studio jumping from one project to another.

I played with resin for awhile and also got some pennies ready for making more earrings but those will be done another day.

I made pulp for papermaking and I spent about 5 frustrating hours on an encaustic painting on Saturday that became something completely different on Sunday!  Finished the wrap bracelet and made a pair of earrings.

  Posting my challenge is more challenging than the challenge itself!  My life would be so much simpler if I would just stick to one thing but I don't seem to be wired that way...or my wiring is loose!

Warming Up for a Show

I've been accepted into a gallery show at the Smithers Art Gallery next fall with my encaustic paintings so I'm going to have to be more efficient with my time to be ready for the show and still have time to work on other things, like jewelry.  Deadlines can be a good thing.

Yellow Pear - encaustic on cradled board - 6x6"

Here's a small warm-up piece I completed in my studio today.  I love the colours.  Not a combination that I would normally use but that's why I decided to use them together.  One of the best things about an obligation that requires me to produce a lot of work over a relatively short period of time, is that I find myself reaching in different directions, sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally.  Encaustic in particular has a way of taking you off course just because of how the medium moves.  Sometimes the final result doesn't have even a germ of the idea I started with.  Sometimes it makes me laugh, and sometimes I cry.  I like laughing more.

The Joys and Frustration of Melted Wax

I have been working with encaustics (beeswax, damar resin and pigment) for less than a year.  I've completed pieces that literally had me jumping for joy and I also have mounds of wax 'mud' that I've scraped off boards after hours of frustration only to find myself there again, hours later, with another pile of mud...and anxious to try again!

I am so amazed by artists who have such perfect control over their work with encaustics.  I am self taught, or more accurately, I am self-teaching, and it's a struggle.  Books are great but nothing beats watching an accomplished artist manipulate their medium in person.  I'll be keeping my eyes open for a workshop soon.  Until that happens, I'm on my own.

Stormy Weather on Francois Lake

 Armed with a fresh supply of encaustic paints, I finished this painting yesterday for a friend's birthday. 

Serenity

Do you ever just crave peace and order in your life?  No hunting for lost papers or running late for work...lots of time to just play with your art...no frantically trying to produce for a deadline that you knew was coming months ago?  And an effortlessly clean house with no clutter?  I'm working on it.

Have you heard of Flylady?   It's a free site with a whole system for keeping order in your life.  I used it a few years ago but drifted away when we started building our new house.  I loved how well it worked when I did follow so now I'm re-adopting the system to fit my life now.

I just had a gigantic yard sale and what didn't sell I took straight to the recycle at our local waste transfer station so I wouldn't be tempted to re-incorporate it into my life.  Water levels are finally dropping so sandbagging is behind me.

I'm looking forward to a creative summer!

I made these encaustic collage cards on handmade paper last night.  The images are from an old wedding keepsake book that a friend picked up for me at an antique shop.  I use the original paper because I like the patina and the texture which copies don't have. 

Encaustic Garden Party

I recently discovered a Canadian shop on Etsy that makes and sells beautiful encaustic paints.  The Bees Knees is located in Ontario.   My first order arrived this week so I squeezed in some time to play yesterday.

Just a few of the luscious colours the Bees Knees carries.

 I use a warming tray that I picked up at Valu Village for $3.99 and melt the paints in a muffin tin.  This electric tray doesn't have variable settings but I checked and it keeps the melted wax at close to 200 degrees F.  The muffin tin fits perfectly on the surface and it's nice and stable.

Melting down the encaustic paints

For my support, I like the cradled wood panels that I can purchase from Opus Framing and Art, a supplier in Vancouver, BC.  These panels are also made from a readily renewable resource, as the hardwood is from the fast growing Paulownia tree. The Paulownia tree can grow from 10 to 20 feet in a season — an entire tree can even regrow in one season after being severely cut back.  The panels come in a variety of sizes and depths.  They also carry great front loading wood frames in black that compliment the encaustic paintings very well.

I like to finish the sides with acrylic paint so I cover them in blue painters tape while I complete the encaustic painting so I don't have to clean up drips later.

And here is my finished piece!  'Garden Party' is an expression of the happy feeling of celebration I get whenever I look at my beautiful summer flowers.

Garden Party, 6x6", encaustic on cradled board

Follow the Sun

Encaustic painting offers the perfect opportunity for control freaks like myself to let go.

Follow the Sun - Encaustic on cradled board - 11x14

As I learn more about ways to control the medium, I also find myself working out ways to to let the paint do what it wants to do to take advantage of its special qualities.  If I want a painting with perfect control, I can use my acrylics or oils.  I want something different from my encaustic paintings.

Sun Worshiper (Encaustic)

Once again, the road in my journey was twisting and winding so I got a bit lost but then found myself somewhere I liked better than my originally planned destination.

Sun Worshiper - Mixed Media Encaustic -12x12 on cradled board

 This is a mixed media piece using both encaustic and oil stick.  It was a challenge to both let go and keep control.  I think in my next painting I'm going to drop the control part and see what happens.

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.

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.

Playing with Fire

I am learning very quickly that encaustic is not an easy medium to master.  But it sure is exciting!  These two very different pieces each started out as sunsets.  They each changed direction dramatically after about 5 minutes.

Encaustic Collage ACEO - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" - Dousing the Flame

Encaustic collage 8x10 on cradled board - Dream