Friday, December 18, 2009

Almost Winter


I finally drug the two encaustic panels out to the studio porch to photograph them. I was somewhat worried about the wind blowing all of us off but I made it back in before the big gust came. It wasn't easy as I had to back down some stairs and hard to get the two pieces to line up for the photos. While editing, I could almost crop out part of the edges of the images. I think this is close enough.

They are finished except I will need to paint the edges with something (not wax)to blend with the front of the paintings. It will be considered a diptych.....and I've played around with various titles. I think "Almost Winter" will do.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Studio stuff




I've just been refining some on the panels...polishing etc. I made a boo boo one evening and left my pot of medium on low in the crockpot and now I'm having to get it out of the pot and probably never use it. What a waste that is for that much medium.

BUT, I have also been working on putting together some panels I ordered before ever moving. I'm not sure I'm doing this right but I'm gluing and clamping the mitered corners. Then I will use finishing nail/brads and glue to attach the front plywood to the top.

While doing all this little studio stuff I kept glancing out the window out to the south and west of the studio. I'm on the second floor so I have a good view out. I just couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures with my telephoto lens. One is looking toward our small lake and the others are looking toward the creek bottoms.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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Panel Progress, continued


I realize you may not see differences in today and yesterday......BUT, it IS there. I even did some scraping. For one thing, I'd been working on the second panel more so today I looked and the first panel (which was my favorite) was looking a little rough in comparison to the second one. Now.....do I want to refine the first one more or add more to the second one???

Maybe do both....so I added some more orange and yellow to the second one, camouflaged the edges of the left side of the second one. Edges are SO important in this as in all painting....sharpen some, soften some.

So much to my shoulder's distress, I kept moving them from wax station to painting wall. I scraped some but I like a certain amount of raw look and texture and not all smooth refined surface. Smooth can be beautiful...on someone else's painting..not necessarily on MINE.

Looking at them together..if I really want this to be a conjoined two panel painting I might add some more linear work and wax to the right one to connect more to the left side. As a separated diptych or just two panels in the same group, I could just leave it alone. If I 'connect' them, I might want to add more neutral white in the right one as it has so much less and is more than a little yellow in the background areas compared to the left.

Decisions, decisions....all is decision and looking at the relationships.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Panel Progress, continued





The bottom photo is after I've been working for a short time adding color and neutral pigments. The one above is a closer in shot of this second panel.

As mentioned yesterday, I wanted to get both panels to about the same amount of finish so they would be compatible to be hung together or NOT.. I work this way with my acrylic on canvas or collage paintings as well. I can complete more with less effort ( I think). I, also, don't get too bogged down with detail or
too much nuance at the wrong times in the process of working. The work will remain fresher.......and oh yeah, my neck will appreciate it a lot.

The top picture is of the two panels at this stage of the painting process. There is a lot of wax and pigment on all parts of the panels now. The next stages will be to refine or cover/expose. I haven't done ANY scraping. This is mostly positive painting with a lot of negative painting into it just as I do with acrylic. ..oh yeah and fuse, fuse, fuse.

Negative painting sure does turn on the right side of the brain...and time flies.