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".

Recent Work:

This is a pastel called
"Old Apple Tree"  

The Way, oil on canvas

Walking in the Light, oil on canvas

The Prayer, pencil drawing on paper

Maine Scene, miniature
acrylic on board

Living Water, oil on canvas

Oxford Harbor, pastel on Wallis paper

Abstract Forms, encaustic on wood

Chesapeake Scene, oil on canvas

Encaustic Painting

I enjoy painting in encaustic as a change from my regular oil painting.  This past week I worked in my garage creating some encaustics to take to First Friday in Chambersburg today.  It was a hot week to be working with heat producing tools, but I had a fun time.  You can see my set up here.  One table has the encaustic medium melted in an electric skillet and the other table has my griddle which I use for a palette.  Both tables are covered with aluminum foil.  If I need large quantities of a color, I make it in recycled cat food tins and melt them on the griddle.  If I just need a small amount, I use a palette knife and just mix oil paint and medium directly on the griddle.  Each layer is followed by a layer of medium and every layer is fused with the torch or heat gun.  I make my own medium by melting one part of damar resin with 8 parts of beeswax.  I get the wax from a local beekeeper and the damar resin from an ebay source.

First Friday in Chambersburg AND a Customer Buys Art!!!

This was my set up in Chambersburg tonight for"First Friday".  A customer, Jen, bought two encaustics!!!!  Many people stopped to talk and took business cards and one gentleman purchased a notecard!!  I had a really fun time and I got a lot of knitting done also.

Fulton County Art Club Meeting and Encaustic Demo

The Fulton County Art Club met here tonight.  We went over some business and then the group showed the encaustics we made at the Linda McCloskey workshop.  Group members were able to try their hand at encaustics in the garage set up.  It was an enjoyable time.  

The group decided to have a plein aire painting day on June 30 behind the public library.  The group is hoping to do plein aire painting during the Fulton Fall Folk Festival the third weekend in October.   

Art all Morning!!!

I worked on encaustics all morning.  I call the one "Streambed" and the other "In the Beginning".  Tonight I want to paint all night--- probably on my oils.  I'm going to make an extra pot of coffee and see what happens.  In Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, she says, "  Creativity is God's gift to us.  Using our creativity is our gift back to God."  I am trying to do creative work as much as possible.  I will control the quantity and let God control the quality.

The Encaustic Palette

I use an electric griddle with heat control as a palette. You can mix encaustic paint right on the griddle or mix large quantities of paint in cat food cans. The paint is made by mixing some of the melted medium (damar resin and beeswax) and oil paint. Notice how a clothespin makes a heat proof handle for the tins. To clean the griddle, I use melted paraffin and wipe it with paper towels.

Garage Set Up for Encaustics

Now I know why I shouldn't use the store brand of aluminum foil to cover my work surface!!! Look at how it tore when I wanted to lift my project!! I will have to put down another layer of foil and try to use up this cheap stuff. Covering the work surface with foil helps to protect it from wax and heat. The foil also helps you to save the hardened splashes of encaustic so that you can re-melt them.

Made Encaustics Today

Today I worked on encaustics in my garage set up. Here are the two that I completed. In the dark, textural one, I used many layers of color and applied black for the final layer. I pressed small items on, added encaustic color over them and then pulled off the items. Textures and impressions were left behind. Lace made an especially nice pattern.

In the red encaustic, I tossed many of the small items that I had pulled from the previous work. I embedded them in more medium and finished with a top layer of alizarin crimson. I used a small clay working tool to gouge lines into the red layer revealing the colors beneath.

Using the torch to Fuse Layers

This is the fun part! Here I am fusing a layer of medium over a layer of pigment.

Encaustics--- Next Step

Here is the 7 to 1 ratio almost melted in the electric skillet. You have to be careful not to get the ingredients too hot. 250 degrees is a critical temperature. I melted the resin crystals first around 240 and then reduced the heat considerably before adding the beeswax.

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.