Saturday, May 26, 2007

Tripping the breakers!



Tripping the breakers! That's what happened this morning as I heated up the wax and got ready to play around again with the encaustic. Guess I had one too many appliances plugged in so it tripped my electric strip. I guess I'll just have to get a stronger strip wattage wise or spread some of this energy about some way in the studio.

My friend, Pat, came over the other day since we never did make contact as I came through Louisiana on my way home from MS. She wanted to see what I was doing with the wax... and see it in person.

We had a good time playing around in the studio Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I, also, took the first ones I decided were finished out and took slides and digitals.

Here are two more that I think I haven't shown yet. The red one is all wax and oil pigment sticks and the other is a combination of wax, pigment stick and collage elements. When I got almost through working on it, it dawned on me that I was painting that tree line base that was showing from my space at the upper pavilion at colony. It's not often I know what I'm painting until a long time later, if ever.

6 comments:

  1. Cheryl,
    I found your blog when I googled abstract painting demos. Your demos are really fun to see and now I've found your blog and subscribed to the feed. I live in Dallas so in a way we are neighbors!

    Your encaustic paintings are looking good. A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to give encaustic a try...knew NOTHING, so I bought Joanne Mattera's book, The Art of Encaustic Painting. It's a great book with gorgeous photos and some solid instruction. BUT, winging it on the patio with my little hot plate and muffin pan was a disastrous experience. I ruined a few brushes and had some fun, but never tried again!

    I've not been painting for a couple of years and recently set up my studio again and have been painting some. I find I'm drawn to abstract form and expression, where before I painted people, dogs, cats, places and things. It seems freeing to paint without having to formally set up the thing, or find the person, or go to a "place". Suffice it to say, I'm a wannabe painter who mostly enjoys the process!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Marsha.....I come to Dallas all the time as my daughter has a condo there in Uptown. It's really the only large city I'm very familiar with...Houston is just too far for a day trip.

    Encaustic does take some gathering of supplies and equipment doesn't it. I ordered really cheap china bristly brushes to use and I can see that it is good to use a different one for almost all color families. I also got some cheap Hake brushes to "try" to flow some wax on with as their bristles are softer.
    Thanks for the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cheryl
    The top piece is one of your best. I like that it combines your collage elements with the encausitc. Seems to make it your own!
    AAB

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Annette. THe fact that you could collage elements with the wax was one of the chief attractions...along with the beautiful surface. I'm finding it is a learning curve keeping them down as you add more pigment and heat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, here we are (silly me, I had only linked to one post -tsk)! Oh, they are groovy - I really must give wax more of a work out than merely as a glue, LOL!

    Hugs,
    kari x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, Kari....there are easier ways to glue things down than wax....but the wonderful surface is worth it.

    ReplyDelete