Bingo!

As promised in one of my previous posts, I'm catching you up to speed on what I've been up to. The above painting seems from so long ago.... Regardless, I'm thrilled with how it all came together. Tiny Little Houses + a style reminiscent of my oil paintings on pieces of reclaimed old wood and doors + the encaustic medium = Bingo!

This piece (still untitled! yikes! I do not like that, but haven't taken the time to figure it out.... any ideas please let me know!) and my other most recent encaustic and mixed medium encaustic landscapes can be found at the Northfield Arts Guild ~ Northfield, MN is a wonderful day trip from here in case you are looking for such an experience......

Summer's Inspirations

Okay, where or where has the time gone? I am finding myself in the middle of July already! There's been soooo much to post and I just couldn't bring myself to take the time to do so until now (instead I have been luxuriously! away from the computer and choosing to instead be out in the midst of it all). So to catch you up to speed, here are just a few of the inspirations (in their texture, color, or form) I've seen in my garden this last month and a half: 

Crazy cool roots!

This garden season (for me) is all about defining (which can also be interpreted as pulling growing things (weeds or flowers, it doesn't matter) and scrapping/composting those that no longer fit into the picture of it all for a given area. I have had to harden my heart, so to speak, to be able to pull the plug on these living, growing green things that I love! But it's all about balance and finding the negative space, the space in between plants can be just as beautiful). And so I was tackling an area that had grown out of control when I gave a pull and a yank and I came up with this handful. The violet appearance above earth certainly didn't reflect what I found connected below.

What in the world?

My husband's son, Art, came across this one day as he was visiting me in the garden. This flat, grey, with lots of long hairs caterpillar was on a rock wall under a bridge in our backyard. It's something I would imagine seeing in a far away place, someplace exotic, instead of central Minnesota. I guess it just goes to show you don't need to travel far to witness such natural wonders. They exist all around us if we just take the time to see.....

Caught

One morning I lifted a pot on the back deck to move it slightly when I spotted 2 tree frogs nestled together underneath. By the time I returned with my camera to capture the romantic spooning they had put space in between themselves. I think they don't seem very happy by the disturbance....

Lovely veins

It almost sounds like something a nurse would say as she is about to poke you with a needle..... This is from an ornamental oregano plant, new to my garden this year. The color and minute detail is incredible! Check out the flower:

Underside/Backside of flower

Frontside of flower

I hope you are enjoying this season as much as I! I look forward to sharing with you what else I have been up to. Stay tuned  :)

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.....

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?