New in the Studio (Sarah's old room)

 

This is a painting I've been working on of a canoe on Lake Jean, Rickett's Glenn.  "Miracle Morning", oil, 24 x 18.  There is going to be more of a shadow on the left side and I have to try to show the lily pads on the lake.

The one on the left is an experimental mixed media.

I took paper covered in encaustic and burned 
the pieces with an acetylene torch. I'm going
to add sewn stitches in gold thread and try

to play up the 

 embossed texture of the background.            

The one on the right is an oil of the Grand Central Terminal in NYC.  "Children of the Light".

Refreshing, Renewing, Rickett's Glen

Lake Jean at Rickett's Glen State Park

How can you feel angry or unhappy when you look at the gentle, peaceful beauty of the water lilies on Lake Jean? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Glens Natural Area-- Falls Trail

 

Work in Progress

Here are the two oil paintings I've been working on this week.  They both need a lot more done to them, but I thought you could see them develop this way.  

I'm going to take along acrylics and pastels to Rickett's Glenn.  I will miss my oils, but I think it will work out better for me.

Walk in the Light

My new artist statement: 

In my art I am trying to somehow transcend the physical and glimpse the spiritual.  Visual art expresses what words cannot.  Many of my works are meant to be contemplative.  They speak to the gap between spirituality and our human understanding. This is what draws me to my subject matter. I believe art emanates from the Creator.  It's bigger than ourselves.  My art is part of my spiritual journey-- like a prayer you can see. 

Stuff I'm Up To

I like to knit.  It is a great way to productively fill the little snatches of time in life that would otherwise escape.  I hate to waste time.  Knitting is relaxing.  I don't worry if it takes me a year to finish something (though I would like to complete my new great niece's knitted item while she is still a baby).  The hat you see me modeling in this picture is a wool hat before I felted it.  "Felting" is when you wash a wool item to purposely shrink and mat the fibers.

This is the same item after I felted it and rolled the brim!! I have enough yarn to make a second one. 

Making Encaustic Paintings in my Garage

This photo shows how I crushed the damar resin crystals with my new yardsale hammer. I put in one catfood tin of resin and 7 tins of chunked up beeswax.

Encaustic Painting is Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Several weeks ago a bunch of my buddies and I took a workshop on encaustic painting with Linda Benton McCloskey. Encaustic painting is a very ancient method of painting in which layers of beeswax and pigment are fused together with heat. Because the pigment is encapsulated in wax, these paintings can last for thousands of years.