Monday, November 28, 2016

Vegetable Still Life

"Vegetable Still Life"
Image size 8" x 10"
Watercolor

I'm back to watercolor this week.  I really like the softness of this painting, which was achieved by painting on saturated paper.  I'm still trying to master this technique that I learned in Jeanne Hyland's workshop but it is a struggle.  She makes it look so effortless.  I am determined to get control of this technique, but I think it is going to take a long time.

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Monday, November 21, 2016

Dynamic Sea

"Dynamic Sea"
Image size 36" x 96"
Encaustic

 This has been on my work table in my garage for over a year.  I used a combination of wax, ink, shellac and oil paint.  It wins for the largest encaustic to date.  I don't know how many pounds of wax I've applied to this, but is sure is a lot heavier than when I started.  Moving it by myself was a challenge.  Three feet by eight feet is HUGE and I'm excited to finally be able to have my worktable back.

I'm not totally sure that it is finished yet.  I need to live with it for a while.  Today is the first time that I've seen it in a vertical position.  I've been working flat on a fairly tall table which is good for my back but not so good for really seeing the artwork.  

I intended this to be totally abstract, but I seem to have created another wave painting...

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Monday, November 14, 2016

Free Flow

"Free Flow"
Image size 12 3/4" x 13"
Encaustic
I started this painting by rubbing some dry pigment into the wood which had been first coated with white encaustic gesso.  It looked soft and subtle until I added a layer of clear medium over it.  The color became a bit more intense, which was fine.  I like that the grain of the wood can be seen in areas.  I've built up layers of wax, alcohol inks and shellac burns to create the texture.  

Monday, November 7, 2016

Divided

"Divided"
Image size 16.5" x 8.5"
Encaustic

This week I played some more with adding alcohol inks to the encaustic.  I bought some white alcohol ink and was excited to try it, but found it was too thick to get it to move and create a fun texture.  I will thin it with additional alcohol and hopefully I will get it to flow without losing too much opacity.  The white ink doesn't show in this painting because I totally covered it up with more wax.  The other inks colors are used only in the lower portion.

This could be read as a type of landscape or as a pure abstract.  I've played with creating a feeling of agitation and chaos juxtaposed with more soothing colors and shapes.  





Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Surge

"Surge"
Image size 15.5" x 15.5"
Encaustic 
I used a mixture of encaustic, alcohol inks and shellac to create this painting.  I think it has a strong sense of power and movement.  Even though it is an abstract, it still has a feeling of water cresting before a powerful break to me.  I'm having a hard time moving away from water in my paintings - especially when using encaustic.

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