Oil and Cold Wax Medium

 I have been taking an online class with Jerry McLaughlin, in oil and cold wax medium, at the Winslow Art Center in Bainbridge Island, WA. Who cares where the class is; it's online. I try to take one intensive workshop each year, to learn something new, deepen my art practice, and also to remind myself what it is like to be a student. Working with an unfamiliar material, feeling ham handed and out of my depth, helps me understand some of the issues my students face. The class is AWESOME! Jerry is a very experienced and sympathetic teacher, very clear and knowledgeable. The format includes live zoom meetings and an online forum for posting work.

So I thought I'd share with you some of my early attempts to getting a handle on cold wax medium. It is an intriguing material, offering beautiful depth and textural possibilities. 

Jerry has us do four "quickies" each day on Arches Oil Paper.

12"x12", this one makes use of carving and pressing texture, wax paper transfer, and more.

Four more Quickies

I used a graphite-dipped waxed linen thread to make the wandering line.

Here I tried coating the thread in solvent-diluted green paint; the technique needs work.

All of the above are experimental and in process. I am working on 12x12 cheap wood panels from Amazon. They are a bit flimsy, but completely adequate to this use. Jerry McLaughlin and Rebecca Crowell host Cold Wax Academy, which is an amazing resource for anyone using cold wax medium. The site offers free videos and information, and membership entitles you to more interaction with Jerry and Rebecca. If you are interested in cold wax, check it out!

2019! Happy New Year

As the days begin to get longer here in the northern hemisphere, many of us take the time to consider what we might like to accomplish in the new year. Do you have plans or goals for your art practice?

Thanks to all of you who have taken my workshops, read my books, and shown up to my blog posts, videos, or newsletters, I feel an overwhelming sense of support for my own work.

Here are a few things on my list for 2019:

1. Spend some time with oil and cold wax. I keep "dabbling" in oil media, but haven't spent concentrated time on it. Here is a post about pigment sticks and oil media. Here are some of the pieces that came out of that exploration; they are 10x10":

2. This is always on my list: work larger. By the end of 2019 I would love to have some idea of what it is like to work on a piece that is 6'x8' (72"x 96"), or somewhere on that scale. I don't aim to finish a piece that size, (if I make that a goal, it will not happen), but to work on pieces of that magnitude.

Here is a mock-up I did a few years ago that allows me to imagine myself working at a much larger scale. Thanks to Photoshop.

3. I want to do a project I'm calling "Art on a Roll": painting/drawing on a continuous roll of paper or canvas. This is inspired by Mayako Nakamuro. Check out her Emaki Study here.

This is a gallery shot of one of Nakamuro's continuous scrolls.

If you have tried this, let me know. It seems as if it would lend itself to a communal project, but I'm not quite sure how that would work. Any ideas?

4. Anther thought that has been kicking around awhile is: incorporating referential (representational) imagery into my abstract paintings. I don't know how I will approach this, but I've been dancing around the idea for a while and it's time to plunge in. Maybe I'll take a workshop, or work from photographs, or make cartoon doodles of chickens or trees or bicycle tires. I just have no idea where this idea would/could lead. Any suggestions are welcome!

In my teaching practice I have a few plans too:
I plan to offer more small mentoring workshops in my schedule. I love painting with people, and also love talking to people about their work, outside of any assignments or content that I might "teach". At the other end of the spectrum, I am adding some beginner workshops and resources to my offerings. THANK YOU for all the feedback and suggestions you gave me in this post about workshop suggestions.

I would love to hear from you, either in a comment on this post or in an e-mail, about your plans for 2019 in terms of your art practice. What is new for you in 2019?

Encaustic Collage Experiments

I am quite revved up about encaustics, having had a fabulously stimulating time at the Fifth Annual Encaustics Conference in Provincetown, MA the other weekend. I have been experimenting with various techniques I learned at the conference, and corresponding with artists I met there.
Above is my first encaustic "Scribble Collage" experiment.

I've also been experimenting with a way to apply my Scribble Collage approach to this exciting medium: painting tissue papers, then using them for collage. As acrylics are not compatible with encaustic, I tried painting papers using oil paint mixed with cold wax medium, and let them dry for a few days.

I scraped the paint/wax on using a credit card, and then did texture rubbings and transfers.

I also scribbled on the papers with oil sticks and pigment sticks (which are the same thing) and oil pastels (which differ from the above in that they contain no drying agents).
I don't know if this combination of oil media and encaustics is safe and durable yet, and I have sent out feelers to determine the best way to approach this technique and will share more as I learn.

This piece is done on unryu (say: un-RYE-you), a tissue-weight paper with a distinctive fibrous texture:

Meanwhile, if any of you have suggestions, comments, or questions, please e-mail me or leave a comment on this post. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME until I get the goods on safety! There may be a better medium than cold wax to do this process. Read this for more info on cold wax. I'm trying to find out if the solvents in the cold wax evaporate sufficiently during drying to be compatible with this process.
THANKS for visiting!