A New Road, and a new direction

Because I have been reintroduced to oil paint, through encaustic painting, and have been perusing any technique that uses oil paint, I have come upon something new that I must try.

Oil and Cold Wax, unlike encaustic wax is not heated, or melted and does not have to be fused between each layer. Although it does have to dry to the touch between layers. Basically oil paint is mixed with a wax medium with a palate knife to make the paint thicker and more textured.

A wonderful abstract artist that works in cold wax and one that I admire is Rebecca Crowell. Her site and blog oilandwax.ning.com has a wealth of information, and I highly recommend it if you are interested in learning about it.

I started right in and have done a few artworks to share. It is a very forgiving medium as you can paint over a painting a thousand times. Which for me is somewhat of an issue as I never know when a painting is finished. 

This is the very first attempt and I really like the vibrant colors. I didn't get as much texture as I wanted. I either need more layers or I let it dry too long (overnight) so the scratching didn't show up.

Cocoon
12" X 12"

.

This attempt has much more paint, and it really was fun to scribble on the surface. I pushed a piece of plastic mesh from a grocery bag of oranges into the surface in the upper left and middle right. It makes a very nice diamond texture. On the right side I pushed a gold oil pigment stick into the pattern when it was dry.

Falling
6"  X  6"

These 2 paintings have thin coatings of wax and oil, then I let them dry well, and went back into them with oil pigment sticks and turpentine. I am enjoying working with oil and Dorland's wax medium and I plan to keep experimenting and will share work as I go along. Both are painted on 12" X 12" cradled board.

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.

New work, a new beginning and a commitment to share...

The last year has been devoted to encaustic wax. With construction finished on my new studio with it's custom ventilation system, designed by husband, I have been spending hours and hours working with beeswax, oil paint, oil paint sticks and oil pastels.

My  Encaustic show in January at the Emporium Gallery in Knoxville was great and I'd like to share images from the exhibit.



This piece, Shoreline, is the largest one in the show, and the largest I have done to date. It really used a lot of wax and as the size goes up so does the material costs. I can see why most work that is seen in this medium is usually in the 12" x 12" format. The surface is highly textured and embedded with shell fragments, sand from the beach, feathers, and cheesecloth. Other texture is created by letting the wax cool slightly before applying, and adding layer after layer. The finished piece has 8-10 layers of medium.You can almost smell the salty sea air after taking a closer look at this piece.

Shoreline
24" x 28"

detail of surface

Working in Wax

Looking at art has become an obsession with me lately and these encaustic pieces have caught my eye so I will share:

Semiotics
16" x 16"
Jann Gougeon

I find the composition in this work beautiful and the way she has juxtaposed the symbols a perfect contrast to the grid like background.

8" x 16"
Mary Philpot

For artists that love to draw, the beeswax medium works so well for detail. A sharp stylus, needle, nail or awl is used to incise the surface. Oil sticks or oil paint is then rubbed into the scratched surface. The result is amazing fine line work.

Not That Fragile
6" x 6"
Mary Black

Encaustic with collage always works for me. So much to look at and contemplate.

Dunkel
Mark Perlman

Another colorful approach to painting with beeswax. A very nice geometric design.

What I'm working on this month

I would like to share some of my work in progress, something I haven't done in the past but feel it might be a good way for me to document what I've done. I hope it will help me grow and develop and show me when a painting is completed. 

These are acrylics combined with collage, since it's gotten cold here and my wax area is not heated, I'm inside where it is warm. I would love to be able to use some beeswax with these mixed media pieces, but acrylic and wax to not mix and cannot be combined. Oil paint is the only paint that works, but for me it takes too long to dry. I am an impatient and spontaneous artist!

Ink and paint underdrawing

I have covered most of my drawings with paint

These paintings are in process and not really ready to say they are finished.  

Encaustic Collage

Artist:	Bascha Mon
Title:	ADRIFT
Medium:	ENCAUSTIC AND COLLAGE ON PAPER
Size:	22 x 30 inches

These collages are from the Tsunami Series and are heavily layered and impressive in size. This is an example of an artist expressing her sorrow through her art. Creating something beautiful out of a horrific natural disaster.

Artist:  Bascha Mon Title:  Searching For Paradise (Lost?) Medium:  encaustic & collage on paper Size:  30 x 22 inches

Artist:	Bascha Mon
Title:	Searching For Paradise (Lost?)
Medium:	encaustic & collage on paper
Size:	30 x 22 inches

Artist: 

Bascha Mon

Title: 

Searching For Paradise (Lost?)

Medium: 

encaustic & collage on paper

Size: 

30 x 22 inches

To see more work by this artist, please visit her website with this link:http://www.neoimages.net/artistportfolio.aspx?pid=3339

Art after Dark, ENCAUSTIC DEMONSTRATION

In the Heart of Historic Waynesville  98 N Main Street, Waynesville NC 28786 (828) 456-1940 Hours: Monday-Saturday 10:00-5:30 Sunday 1:00-4:00 (May - October)   www.facebook.com/twigsandleavesgallery    Art After Dark ~ August 5th Featuring Lynn Bland Lynn Bland, mixed media designer from Gatlinburg, TN (and Florida State University graduate), will be the featured artist at Art After Dark 6:00-9:00 PM on Friday, August 5th.     Lynn will be demonstrating encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, which involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added.        Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools.  Lynn uses other materials that she encases or collages into the surface, or layers using the encaustic medium to adhere to the surface.  The result is a creative and beautifully unique piece of art. Stroll the gallery and view 140+ artists, while enjoying piano music, complimentary wine and hors d'oeuvres.

Back to Wax

In Process

oil sticks for drawing

Many brilliant colors to choose from. These are small blocks  of concentrated pigments suspended in encaustic medium.

The wax is heated to 250 degrees and becomes liquid. The thermometer sits directly on the heated palette so I can monitor it during painting.

The Paint

Warm and Ready




 

The Laboratory

The Day the Winds Came

This encaustic painting has an interesting detail that is accomplished with the use of  clear shellac mixed with white oil paint.  It is then painted on the surface of the wax, let dry for a few minutes and then heated with a  handheld propane torch. The amber colored section at the top right was done the same way, but with amber shellac. This method should always be done with caution as all these materials are flameable.

This is a detail of the shellac method. It gives the surface such a beautiful organic feeling.