News on the Encaustic Front

I am happy to say the little painting that was shown on the last post won an award of merit.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts has a prestigious show biennially in the main gallery of the school. It is only open to Sevier County Residents and has gained popularity through the years.
This year's juror was Ms. Teri Alea. She is the Executive Director for Tennessee Craft, a leading statewide craft organization which provides professional development for craft artists across the state.

I entered "The Jester" and received one of three of the merit awards. It was exciting for me to be recognized in my own community for my artwork. Here I am with my painting.

The "Jester" is offered for sale.

Please visit my etsy store: 

www.notsobland.etsy.com

Please visit my etsy store: 

www.notsobland.etsy.com

Back to the Heat

I'm ready for some instant gratification and what better way than to heat up my encaustic palette and get to work. I will share some earlier works that haven't been on this blog and then a preview of new works on the drawing board. I've always dreamt of doing an installation and I am working toward that end.

Close To The Sun

This painting was chosen to be included in the EAI ( Encaustic Art Institute) juried show.

It is 6" x  6" in size and framed in a matte black museum floater frame. There is no glass on this type of frame, so the beautiful quality of the wax can be seen. This piece has a lot of texture in some places and is smooth and glassy in other spots. I have used a small amount of amber shellac on the surface and burned it in with a torch to give the bubbling effect.

                                                                     

View From Lake Louden

This piece is part of the Arrowmont Sevier County Biennial Juried Show, and will be on display through March in the main gallery. This artwork is framed in a matte black museum frame without glass and  measures 17" X 17" in size.

Fall Migration

This is a 12" X 12" encaustic work with a lot of surface texture in the top half of the painting, contrasting with the smooth reflective area below. It is left unframed with the cradled sides finished, which eliminates the need for a frame.

This next group is my newest work and is in the very beginning designing phase. These little paintings are on 4" X  4" X 2" blocks of wood. My intention is to combine all 9 of them and hang  them as a group (installation). Not sure yet what the configuration will be; possibly 3 rows of 3 across, or all 9 across. That decision will wait until they are completed. This is just the first layer,(some paintings can have 20 layers)  I really like these clear colors and simple lines.

Olive Trees

Olive Trees
8" x 8"

This piece was inspired by a recent trip to Italy during harvest time.
There were so many beautiful fields of Olive Trees everywhere. They look, "oh so delicious", ripe and juicy, ready to be eaten. But don't eat one off the tree, they are not delicious at all. They are very bitter. Ha, ha ha,we learned the hard way.
The technique I used on this painting is called incising and each of those thin lines are made with a sharp needle tool, another clay tool, that works well in wax.
To make the line black, an oil stick in pushed into the recesses, let dry and buffed away.  Tube oil paint can also be used, but must be exposed to the air for several hours to thicken, then used.
This painting was donated to Arrowmont School of Art, in Gatlinburg for Auction. It's a beautiful campus here offering a wide variety of classes in all mediums.