May Gray

"May Gray"

Image Size 6" x 6"

Encaustic

Here in Southern California every year we get June Gloom.  The days start out overcast and sometimes stay that way all day.  I've always enjoyed that month of atmospheric calm before the heat of summer comes.

Sometimes we also get May Gray.  This year, we've only had it a couple of days in the past week or so.  As I was painting this small painting, that is what came to mind.  My intention when I started was to do some inscribing and playing around with techniques new to me, but when I saw how this was evolving, I had to leave it alone.  

I'm sure "June Gloom" will be another painting for me.  

Stormy Day

"Stormy Day"

Image Size 11" x 14"

Encaustic

I painted this on an unprimed, cradled board so that the wood could show through the wax in some areas.  I love blue and rust together so that is what I chose for my color palette this week.  This has a little amber shellac and white shellac as well as wax.

Powerful Crest

"Powerful Crest"

Image size 8" x 8"

Encaustic

I love the colors in this painting.  They are soothing, happy and are perfect for my obsession with waves.   Obviously, I love painting waves and I hope you're not getting tired of seeing them because I'm sure I will be painting quite a few more.  In the past, I've enjoyed adding a lot of white to the waves by flicking the wax onto the surface and lightly fusing so that the end result is very textural.  I wanted this painting to have a softer effect so I fused the white dots of color until the surface was smooth.  That makes the white specks have softer edges and they are more translucent than opaque.  I'm happy with the result and for such a small painting the totally smooth surface makes it look like a glazed tile.

Stratum

"Stratum"

Image size 12" x 24"

Encaustic

I didn't get a very good picture of this painting.  The white blotches are reflections from spotlights.  I started this painting on a cradled board that had a base of encaustic gesso.  I planned to start the painting with watercolor so I painted the gesso on with a lot of texture hoping to have that show up through the watercolor.  Unfortunately, unlike regular acrylic gesso that becomes permanent when dry, the encaustic gesso is reactivated by water so the texture went away when I used the watercolor. 

 My base of watercolor was a dark blue that I dripped onto the board and some muted green in the background.  Then, I added a layer of clear medium.  Once that was fused I started adding oil paint, encaustic layers and some inks.  I love the colors in this painting and the soft background colors which were done with the oil paints.

Tranquility

"Tranquility"

Image size 15.5"x 15.5"

Encaustic

There are many times when deciding on a title for a painting is very difficult, but this one came to me easily.  As I look at these colors and the movement in the painting, I feel very tranquil.  Most of the textures in this painting are from various layers of wax, but the white paint was added as a shellac burn.