Play time!

This last weekend I participated in the largest art tour of the country, Art-A-Whirl. I am, nearly always, inspired by such an event; I love sharing and telling with others about the creative path I find myself on and the work that has resulted from this journey. In turn, I learn about new ideas, thoughts, and perspectives - all of which I find invaluable. It can be from a fellow artist down the hall or a someone I had never met.

My inspiration started earlier this time around. I left Friday evening with an idea from such conversations and went home to research the encaustic world further. With the whirl of the weekend, and then work, I had to put my play time in the studio on hold for a few days....

Jump forward to yesterday when I visited a local gallery to specifically see the work of Bethany Kalk. Combined with her wonderful imagery (inspired by nature - what could be more wonderful?) and painting with wax technique (oh! the layers and delicate line highlighting select forms) I was ready to jump in and play (though it was hard not to be fearful after seeing such work).

The following images are the result (please excuse the glare! (I may need to recapture to give justice to, what I think is, my progress made.....)):

I explored layers and colors

in a very different way than before.

      

But of course, there's a Tiny Little House....

The completed 6" square painting on wood.
I wonder.... what shall its title be?

What do you think?  I would love to know!

I'm curious to give this combination another try.... As always, stay tuned  :)

Paint Over or Under Paint?

This has been the question of late. I have always been attracted to the under layers of color and texture poking through the surfaces in a painting. Thus my own painting in oil and acrylic has resulted in this visual history.

Remember my posting back in January? I had experienced the freedom of melting away an encaustic painting I did not love. Doing away with the idea, the imagery of it all - once and for all. Nothing remained of its being, except for a faint recollection that only I may have.

Now I am thinking that there might be something there to work with after all. What if I were to continue painting waxy layers until I LOVED it? It's a curious idea, I have to say. And one that would be completely foreign to me in this medium. 

I have 3 pieces in mind I could play around with. This is one of them:

Yes, perhaps in and of itself this is a good piece. I do really like it. But I am not in love with it as I am with my newer work (and yes, at the time of it's creation I did love it). Of course I completely value seeing the progression (where I started (as this painting shows) to where my Tiny Little Houses are now at) and everything does deserve it's place in time. Yet, I keep coming back to this idea of waxy continuation and so.... I might just have to give it a try. How else would I know? So stay tuned. I will certainly keep you posted!      :)

Painting Dreams

I feel like this last week I have been dreaming a lot about painting. Applying color in a loose, yet controlled manner, showing strokes of the brush and layers within it all. Despite these visuals running through my head, I have yet to spend some time with the oils. I'm not worried and feel no hurry as I know when the time is right, I will. I love this lack of pressure!

In the meantime, I have been working on a project at the farm. Perhaps you have seen the tree I designed and painted a couple of months ago? It's part of the stage for the puppet shows we have. It's about 8' tall....

Now that winter is officially over, my tree needed it's leaves for May's show. And this is where the dreams of painting seem to be coming out. Below are the 3 pieces (the one in the very back, primed white (kinda hard to see?) is next in line). The 2 in the foreground are ready to be installed. I absolutely love this green!

Oh, and how I love the texture and layers. It was so very satisfying!! I'm looking forward to painting again tomorrow.....