Scorched Earth

Scorched Earth

Image Size 24" x 12"

Encaustic

We have been having a severe drought here in Southern California for several years.  Last year, I think we had three days of rain and none of those storms produced any significant rainfall.  Our rainy season is usually from November through April and so far we've had a couple of storms and one of them was huge so we're heading in the right direction.  Experts say even if we get our normal amount of rain this year (about 13") it will take several years for our ground water to be replenished.

We are supposed to get a storm either tomorrow or Wednesday so this painting is my artistic rain dance.  So many times rain is promised by our local weather people and none materializes.  I hope we get a nice storm that gives us a good amount of water but no downpours that will cause flooding.  Do you think it will work?  I'm sure it will.

This is another encaustic painting.  Molten wax seems like the perfect medium for a painting named "Scorched Earth".  I also added shellac to the painting and set it on fire.  That created a little too much texture in the sky so I added layers to tone it down.  I'm really happy with the result.

Pique

Pique

Image Size 36" x 54"

Acrylic

This is what the inside of my head looks like right now.....

I built a cradled surface using a 1/4" plywood with a veneer on one side and gessoed it several times to seal it and make a textured surface.  Then I did a combination of pouring and scumbling to create the image.  It was a very freeing project that let me get rid of a lot of frustrations.  Abstracts are great for that and there's nothing quite as liberating as throwing paint.

The Sentinel

The Sentinel

Image size 4" x 6"

Encaustic

December is always a busy month and this week was especially crazy so I didn't have much time for art.  This is a very small encaustic study that I did.  I enjoyed playing with layers of opaque and translucent wax.  The tree looks darker in this photo than it really is in person.

I'm planning to be working on encaustics this week too but first, I want to paint a large acrylic abstract.  I'll start that tomorrow...

Lake Powell Encaustic

Lake Powell Encaustic

Image size 6" x 4"

Encaustic

I painted a small encaustic this week.  Lake Powell is a favorite subject of mine to paint.  I love the rusty colors of the canyons against the blues of the sky and water.  This beautiful lake has my favorite complementary color combination - blue/orange - occurring naturally  in the dramatic canyons.

Painted Tile Landscape

Painted Tile Landscape

Image Size 8" x 12"

Glazes on tile

I have a lot of white glazed tile leftover from remodeling projects from decades ago - no, I don't usually throw stuff away if I think it can be used for an art project.  This is my first try at painting on a glazed tile with low fire glazes.  I've painted on bisque tiles before many times (porous with no shiny finish) but this was a different experience.  I painted then fired these tiles twice because I didn't get the glaze dark enough the first time.  After firing the first time, the glaze became permanent and I was able to add more paint without lifting my first layer.  Since the surface is slick, the glaze wants to slip around and lift when more glaze is added.  I think I will be able to paint with one firing for the next project.  Each time a new medium/surface is used, there is a learning curve and I learned a lot with this painting.  Next time should be easier.  Another challenge when painting with glazes is that the way the painting looks before firing is very different than after it is fired.  It's fun to open the kiln and see the result.  It's always a surprise.

This was so much fun and I'm planning to do more very soon.  I like the looseness of this and it feels good to use up some supplies that I've been hoarding.  I need to mount this on a board and grout the lines between the tiles to finish it.  It will look a lot different when that's done.

Colorful Trio

Colorful Trio

Image Size  12" x 18"

Watercolor

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a one day workshop with Jeanne Hyland.  It was really fun.  If you are looking for an informative, motivating workshop, I highly recommend her as a teacher.  She taught us how to work on a super saturated piece of paper.  Of course, she made it look really easy.  This painting is my attempt to use that technique on my own.  It was a lot harder than it seemed, watching her in her workshop.  As with all watercolor, it's a matter of the control of water vs. paint.  I've always had a problem with that.  It is the reason that watercolor is so challenging.  The challenge is also the reason that watercolor is such a delight.  I would be bored if painting with watercolor was easy.

I love the look of the soft edges that is achieved with this technique.  I need to use non-staining colors so that I can do some lifting in future paintings.  In this painting, my shadows crept into the background because my paints were too wet and since they were staining colors, I wasn't able to lift the paint.  Also, because my background was the white of the paper, there was less room for error.

I do like this painting overall even with the goobers.   I am excited to try this technique again.  I can see that a lot of trial and error will be necessary before I am able to master this technique.  Below is the painting that I did in Jeanne's workshop.  It was done from one of her reference photos. 

I don't think this is a good painting but I do like the soft edges and the color range within the flower.  

At The Shore

"At The Shore"

Image Size 8" x 8"

Encaustic

Here is another encaustic with a shellac burn.  On this one I only put the shellac on the bottom portion.  This is an abstracted wave (in case you can't tell) and I thought the shellac burn would make a nice texture for the sand area.

Substratum

Substratum

Image size 8" x 8"

Encaustic

I've been experimenting with encaustics this week.  I really like this medium.  The fluidity of the melted wax is magical.  I love that this medium is not totally controllable.  That's a perfect foil for my black and white personality and controlled painting style.  I'm surprised that painting this way isn't  stressful to me but I'm really enjoying it.  Also, as much as I love to paint in a tightly rendered, representational way, sometimes I want to paint abstractly and this medium is perfect for those times. 

For this painting, I tried doing a shellac burn after I applied and fused the layers of wax.  I love the mottled look that the shellac makes.  I've been wanting to try this for a long time but fire usually freaks me out.  I was working outside (it's best to have good ventilation when working with wax) and put my panel on a piece of stone, but I still had my fire extinguisher next to me when I lit this on fire.  It's actually pretty cool lighting the shellac on fire.  It's hard to see the flame but as soon as the textures make their appearance, it's obvious that it is burning.

So far, I've been using a heat gun to fuse the wax layers.  That is a very acceptable way to work with the wax but I think I would have much more control with fusing small areas if I were to use a torch.  I'm so scared of fire that I haven't wanted to try using one in the past, but now, maybe I'm ready to move ahead and try one. 

I'm such a scaredy cat baby but by having my fire extinguisher at the ready, working outside and having my panel on fire resistant material, using the torch should be pretty safe.  My 83 year old friend has been using a torch for her encaustics for years so if she can do it, so can I, right?

Sun Shade

Sun Shade

Image size 22" x 15"

Watercolor

Last week's painting was painted on a paper parasol from my niece's wedding.  This week's painting is of another niece at that same wedding using one of the parasols.  I guess it would have made more sense chronologically to post this one with the unpainted parasol and then the painted parasol but I didn't think about that until right now.

I haven't painted a portrait for almost two decades and even back then, I think I only painted three or four and they weren't very good. Painting a portrait is very stressful for me and I'm not really very happy with this one.  First, it looks nothing like my niece (she's so much prettier) and it's also very tight.  I was able to start to relax as I painted it by telling myself "it's only a piece of paper" over and over and in the end, I was enjoying the process.  I am looking forward to trying another portrait soon.

Napa

Napa

Image size 31" diameter

Oil

I did finish one of the paintings I mentioned last week.  I started this one a long time ago.  Our niece was married in Napa in September two years ago.  The small wedding was perfect.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, not too hot, and the venue was beautiful.  The grapes were almost ready for harvest and our niece and her groom looked gorgeous in this wonderful setting.  My sister had these paper parasols for all of the guests and I knew that I wanted to paint a vineyard scene on one as soon as I saw them.

I started this painting in acrylic but didn't like the way it looked so I decided to switch to oil.  I painted the sky in oil and then some other project distracted me so this sat unfinished for a very long time.  It feels good to finally finish it.

I tried taking a picture of it with a white background but it didn't work very well so I placed it on the grass instead.  I think the grass gives a nice textural background.