Stretching my brain a bit

So my dear artist friend, Trisha, came out the other day. As I was showing her what I have been working on in the studio, she started musing about the idea of combining various components that I have between my different mediums - all into one piece. 

One idea she invited me to explore was the use of patterns in my encaustic paintings. This is something that was not entirely new to me as I had combined my Organic Digital Designs that first weekend I was introduced to encaustic. But as in all things, I, and my work, had grown/evolved since then and that perhaps, just perhaps, the marriage of the 2 would be different this time around.

Over lunch we continued the conversation (and I have to say I was warming up to her suggestion and could visualize the idea!) and later she waved good-bye with a firm go and play in the studio!

And so, following her direction, I printed out in varying scales, a couple of different patterns, complimentary to each other. I then cut out shapes and sizes that worked with the direction I had in mind.

After a couple of trys, "playing" as she called it, and what I so want to embrace, (I'm trying to not create a perfect (in my mind, reaching my high standards) piece every single time the first time around. I'm trying to instead embrace the idea that less-than-what-I-hope-for is just fine - especially if I am exploring, getting messy and just plain having fun!).

 I share with you the piece below, My Tiny Little House on a Hill with a Patterned Sky......

and here's a detail. I do have to say I'm especially pleased with the textural hill - with the varying values of green  :)  What do you think???

I have to say that my head hurt by the end - it did feel like a lot of work to stretch my comforts and play! and so I felt the need to end my studio time with a bit of cheerful comfort.....

P.S. since then, I have been noodling around in my head what I feel I learned from this day of play. I am looking forward to continuing this thread and am curious to see where it leads me.  As always, stay tuned!  :)

Just a normal day in the Studio?

It started out like any other day in the studio - hot plate on, wooden cradles prepped, inspiration flowing...

And then my dear cat, Gabe, took up residence in my stand space (thankfully temporarily - though of course, he had to move on his own accord, how would I dare disturb his fuzziness comfort?). 

And then it was my dear dog, George's turn. He's a bit bigger.....

But thankfully, inspiration wasn't halted as I continued with my line of an idea. Balloons as you can see - cheerfully colored and painted in a loose, yet controlled manner (remember my posting back in September?). 

Yes, I have been thinking about painting quite a bit lately, with oil on wood - as I used to do, in the olden days, if you will. I have been kinda missing it, but haven't yet pulled out the oil paint and brushes. Instead, I have been noodling around the idea of painting in a new manner or incorporating the new into the old - spurred on by this last September's class (see above link). 

And so, out of the blue, my balloons seemed to encompass both ideas of mine - the old and the new - painting in encaustic vs. oil definitely allows more spontaneous brush stroke, I think (at least for me, right now). I'm curious to see how it continues to evolve! Regardless, I'm quite pleased with this direction!

So though my day started out normal, I would say my end result was not as anticipated! It was even better than normal  :)

Here's the finished piece, 5"x 7", from my Tiny Little House series. I can't help but title it "Up, Up and Away!" as it's kind of Up-esque. Don't you think?