The Encaustic Studio

I am happy, once again, to recommend Daniella Woolf's new book, The Encaustic Studio, from Interweave.  I talked about her book in a post called "Putting in the Hours" last month, in which I highlighted some of her advice for artists in general, not specifically encaustic artists.

Besides putting in the hours, Daniella talks about the Power of the Container, by which she means setting parameters, limiting your options.

"If I give myself free rein and infinite options with which to create, I can't move... But if I give myself a few limits, I am golden".  

"I have learned to limit my options, perhaps by color... or medium, but there must be some parameters for my work.  I call this having a container".

So, inspired by Daniella's book, and in the spirit of "Scribble Painting", I went to my encaustic studio yesterday and worked with a limited palette on paper, using lines, repeated circles, and repeated squares.

Encaustic on Paper, 8"x8"

Encaustic on Paper, 8"x8"

Postcard 1, Encaustic on Paper, 4"x6"

Postcard 2, Encaustic on Paper, 4"x6"

Postcard 3, Encaustic on Paper, 4"x6"

 Read about the workshop I took with Daniella last January.  She was such a generous, fun, and informative instructor, I'll be working off what I learned from her for months.  The Encaustic Studio includes a DVD, so you can feel like you are taking a live workshop from Daniella too!

I will be teaching encaustic workshops this summer and fall at the following venues:

• Plaster and Wax at Art Unraveled on August 6.
• Plaster and Wax at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Introduction to Encaustics at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Paper and Wax at Guilford Art Center on October 13 - 14.

Thanks for visiting.

My Chickens are Famous!

Well, two of them, Buffy and Sylvie, ended up in STUDIOS magazine in an article I wrote about studio organization. For the unedited version of my article, click here.  But buy the magazine because it has loads of useful information and gorgeous photographs for inspiration.

The opening page spread

See Buffy and Sylvie on the right page, center.

I am excited to have my workspace featured in STUDIOS magazine!  And Buffy and Sylvie are delighted with themselves, preening for the press.  They offered interviews... (that's another post).  In any case, this issue of STUDIOS magazine is full of ideas and tips on studio organization, from the pristine neatnik approach to the more casual, but functional one.  So, whatever your style, you'll find something useful. I think mine is the only studio featuring a Buff Orpington and a Silver Laced Wyandotte.

Aside from describing my painting/collage studio organization, I included a side-bar on my encaustics studio.  If you are interested in getting started in encaustics, this gives you a blueprint for the basic at-home set-up.  I am teaching several encaustics workshops this summer and fall:  

• Plaster and Wax at Art Unraveled on August 6.
• Plaster and Wax at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Introduction to Encaustics at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Paper and Wax at Guilford Art Center on October 13 - 14.

No workshops on chicken husbandry, but if you are anywhere near Rupert, Vermont, let me know and you can meet The Girls in person!

Putting In The Hours

I just got my copy of Daniella Woolf's new book, The Encaustic Studio, published by Interweave.  It is a gorgeous book, full of techniques and ideas, and a very thorough introduction to encaustic material, safety, and practices.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get started in this exciting medium.  Plus, it comes with a DVD (brilliant move, Interweave!), so you can see Daniella demonstrate the processes.

Daniella's insightful chapter on Studio Practices and Creativity inspires me to recommend the book to any artist struggling with the Inner Critic, the Inner Perfectionist, the Inner Procrastinator, in short, any artist at all!  One passage that really hit home for me is her section on "putting in the hours":

There is something that happens in our bodies when we put in the hours.  Confidence appears, fear lifts, and we have a sense of empowerment... One day the process becomes easy and natural, and you'll wonder why it was so hard at first.

Don't be discouraged if your initial efforts don't match your vision.  Keep making art consistently; put in the hours and don't worry about the outcome.  Do what's necessary to make room in your life for time in the studio.

I wouldn't say that making art ever becomes easy, but your relationship with the struggle becomes less of an obstacle.  The Inner Critic can more easily be told to take a hike.  Picking up the paint brush or making a quick sketch becomes natural.  Being in the process and not worrying about the outcome becomes easier.  Making bad art becomes just part of the process, not some "failure".  And making art that you like happens more often.

Encaustics Show in Santa Cruz

An online acquaintance of mine, Sandy Sudbrink, of Santa Cruz, kindly went to the Pajaro Valley Arts Council to see a show in which I have three pieces.  AND SHE TOOK A PHOTO OF MY WORK!!!  How cool is that!  Take a look at Sandy's website of beautiful watercolors.  I particularly like the architectural piece - they have a stillness to them that I find really intriguing.

Here are my pieces in the show, called "WAX: Contemporary Encaustic Works":

If anyone wants to know anything more about encaustics, go here.  If you want to take an encaustics workshop with me, I'm teaching one at Art Unraveled, on Monday, August 6; and again at Art and Soul on Tuesday, October 2.  I'm offering a workshop called Paper and Wax at the Guilford Art Center in Guilford, CT the weekend of October 13 - 14. 

Thanks for visiting!

More About Encaustics!

Daniella Woolf just blogged about our workshop and included a video of me doing the "Bennington Burn"!  Check it out here.

Encaustics Workshop with Daniella Woolf

I am just back from a five-day encaustics workshop.  What an experience!  If you do not know what encaustics is, go here or here.  The workshop was given by Daniella Woolf through North Country Studio Workshops at Bennington College.  Unbelievable group - the students AND the teacher were all accomplished artists with a lot of inspiration to offer.

One very cool thing with encaustic is doing collage on paper.  We did a group collage in which every student made one horizontal collage piece, and then we assembled them as a hanging scroll. Here is Daniella Woolf and Wen Redmond (do check her out!!) assembling the scroll:

 And the finished scroll hanging in the window overlooking the back field.


Here is the first stage of a self-portrait I did, as I am in the midst of my online class "Exploring the Self-Portrait".  I drew directly onto the wax (encaustic medium over paper laminated to a plywood panel) with china marker:

 I was not too thrilled with the mouth, so after scraping it off, I applied a coat of white encaustic paint mixed with a lot of medium over the whole thing.  then I cut out another mouth from one of my sketchbook drawings, and applied it with medium.  I added a few more details in graphite, and built up color and a bit of collage on either side of the face.

Here are a couple other photos from the workshop:

Another 8"x8" panel, "Ink and O's"

This untitled piece is on a panel coated with plaster.




This piece has many layers of wax as well as encaustic collage:

"Shino"
Shino is a kind of traditional Japanese ceramic glaze, some beautiful examples of which I found here.  The Alizarin Orange coming through the white wax reminded me of this glaze:





"Cruciform with Rust"


"Red Square 2"




"Red Square 1"



My work space

R&F Paints provided a vast array of encaustic paints and medium.

  I am so grateful to North Country Studio Workshops for granting me a scholarship to take this fabulous, life-changing workshop!!  I know it will enrich my work, and I hope it will enrich my teaching.  I am also grateful to Daniella Woolf for being so generous with her knowledge and resources.  She has two fabulous instructional DVD's available, which you can purchase here.

2012 Retreats

If you are considering an art retreat for 2012, or even if you aren't, I'm thrilled to announce that I will be teaching at a few:

In July, I will be teaching at CREATE, hosted by Interweave Press, in Somerset, NJ:

• Wednesday, July 18, Fabric-Paper, 9 - 4
• Wednesday, July 18, Fusion Fabric, 6 - 9
• Thursday, July 19, Unbinding the Visual Journal, 9 - 4
• Thursday, July 19, Scribble Paint, 6 - 9

Registration opens sometime in January.

In August I'm returning to Art Unraveled in Phoenix:

• Sunday, August 5, Fabric-Paper
• Monday, August 6, Plaster and Wax

Registration opens January 15.

I'll be returning to Art and Soul in October:

• Monday, October 1, Abstract Landscape
• Tuesday, October 2, Plaster and Wax

Registration is open NOW!

Collage Journeys in Vermont will take place here in Rupert, August 14 - 18 (Tue. - Sat.). I will have the description and registration sometime in January - don't worry, I will certainly blog about it!

I Won A Scholarship!!!

I am so thrilled to announce that I won a scholarship to take a 5-day intensive encaustics workshop with Daniella Woolf this coming January through North Country Studio Workshops. NCSW offers workshop for professional artists at an advanced level, once a year, at Bennington Collage, in Bennington, Vermont. The facilities there are fantastic, and all the students are gone for the winter term, so we have the place to ourselves. Check out Daniella's website as well as her book and DVD, "Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility". And check out NCSW for future workshops.

Both images posted here are from Daniella's web site.

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!

Encaustic Conference

Hi Everyone,
I've been away for a few days at the Fifth Annual Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA, founded and organized by Joanne Mattera. I saw demonstrations of encaustic monotypes, photographic and other transfer techniques, using masks and stencils, using pigments with shellac and igniting it on the encaustic surface, using handmade paper substrates for encaustic, and more. I was also thrilled to see the work of lots and lots of conference-attendees, who set up displays in their rooms on Sunday morning. Here are a few links to encaustic artists whose work I'd like to share. This is just a sampling. Check out the blog for more info, links, and suppliers.

David A. Clark

Binnie Birstein

Cherie Mittenthal

Cherie was responsible for bringing the conference to Provincetown, and is the executive director of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. She is represented by Kobalt Gallery in P'town, which hosted a show of encaustic work in conjunction to the conference.

Linda Womack
Jane Allen Nodine
Nancy Natale
Nancy also has a blog on which she has posted fabulous pictures of the conference.
I could go on and on, but I'll leave you with this. Thanks for visiting!

Encaustics Experiments Continued

In my recent encaustic experiments I've been trying to embed texture such that it sits just beneath the smooth polished wax surface. I'm also exploring techniques for creating line. In the top image, I used Friskars plastic texture plates to get the swirly pattern pressed into the warm wax, then I applied further layers of encaustic medium, and scraped it back with a razor blade. The circle is made by incising a line into the warm wax, then filling it with black pigmented encaustic, and scraping it back. In the second piece, I scraped texture into the first layers of encaustic with various tools, then rubbed oil paint into it. After another coat of encaustic medium was applied, I incised the lines, filled them with paint, and applied yet another coat of medium. I am not looking for any particular result at this point. My experiments are just that, experiments, in search of whatever comes out. I got a sheet of birch faced plywood and had it cut into 8" squares. That makes 72 panels! Before applying the encaustic, I'm laminating each panel with a sheet of watercolor paper to give it a white background. Stay tuned!

I am finding these two books VERY helpful and inspirational: Encaustic Art, by Lissa Rankin, and The Art of Encaustic Painting, by Joanne Mattera. I'm also taking an encaustics and collage workshop at Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT, on November 12. Beth Kendrick is a fabulous teacher!

encaustic experiments

I took a one-day encaustics workshop back in April at the Studio Place Arts in Barre, Vermont. I got OBSESSED with it, of course (everyone who tries encaustic seems to get obsessed). Eventually I set up a workspace in my studio devoted to encaustics, and have been experimenting a bit. A little bit, that is. Between collage-painting, teaching workshops, and still doing some freelance art, I haven't carved out nearly enough time for this, but little by little... baby steps. So today's project was to experiment with ways of getting a smooth surface and translucent colors. I set up a heat lamp (the one I used to brood baby chicks this summer) over my substrate (plywood laminated with hot-press watercolor paper) to heat it up before applying the beeswax and encaustic medium, and I kept it warm between applications. Way more experimenting to do with this heat lamp set-up, but I did want to share this one little result. For the forseable future, my encaustic "pieces" are all to be viewed as playgrounds. Experiments. Not even works in progress, just playing around to get a feel for the material and practice techniques. OK, I mentioned the chickens. Here is a picture of them on their first day at my house back in July.