Show Invitation

I thought I'd upload the beautiful invitation the Joyous Lake Gallery owner, Gwen Pentecost, designed for my show that starts Friday. Please do come by if you are in the beautiful White Mountains of Arizona.....or visit online at the gallery website.

Opening Reception......Friday, August 3, 5-9 pm and Saturday, August 4, 2-5 pm 1869 E. White Mountain Blvd, Pinetop, AZ 928.367.1319

A Little At A TIme!

Slowly...a little at a time. That's what it takes sometime to get my studio in a little more order. Today I took slides of the last of the small encaustics and printed out little images for all the boxes and stored them away, except for the ones going to the show this week-end. So.......since I had more of those boxes, I decided it would be a good idea to box up the acrylic 12 x 12" panels I painted just before I started with the wax. I didn't have to do all the bubble padding on these but I did print out the little images for the boxes and now they are all lined up nicely in the closet..

And for several days I've had the light box, and a mass of slides I'd been putting off organizing, numbering, etc and filing away....Whew, finally through with that and all that put away. I'm all caught up with every single painting having a slide or one still in the slide camera. When all that film I ordered quite some time back is gone I guess it's time to stop taking slides and just convert entirely over to digital.

Gosh, now I can actually see all the wax paraphernalia all over the table top again.......and the 24 x 24" panel that is not covered in the first layer of beeswax yet. I know, I SAID I was getting out the acrylic but for some reason I figure it would be a good idea to put the first layer on this piece so it will be ready to go when I get the urge to pull out the wax in cooler weather. It takes a LONG time to get one layer on a 24 x 24 with canvas over panel. Maybe tomorrow I can get the center part layered in. I'm going to put all this stuff away and come back from AZ with a studio ready to paint in.

Well......grandkids will be here tomorrow and Curry is back home, too......so I can hope anyway.

Is it finished?

I'm trying to decide if this is finished or not. Yesterday I went back to working on the last of the dozen small encaustic panels. I'd been playing around with making another few colors of wax paint and found a gorgeous Cobalt Violet oil paint in my supplies. SO....that with some reds, yellows, orange and a few slight mixtures produced this painting.

It is an intense color painting. First I needed to break up the overallness of the design......and I kept thinking that maybe it needed a little color contrast as well so I came up with these painted and incised yellow-green lines. After I photographed it to send to my friend Pat I realized I might like it better turned around to another direction. Now I have the line on the right side instead of the left or the top. It's funny how photographing something can help you see it with a different perspective. I, also, photograph paintings and put them up on the computer to take myself away from being so close.

I may possibly glaze over it slightly with plain medium one more time...hum, and a tad more green if called for. Gotta be careful I don't just end up with another painting though.

Changed my mind!

Yep, it's the perogative of artists and women everywhere that we can change our minds.

Overnight I kept thinking....why not just use this shipment as a test for an encaustic to go ground (4 day ground at that).......and see what happens? At least it's only one piece. I packed it up good in its own little storage box, put it in the middle of another panel (not encaustic) in it's own little box ...and then more small paintings on the top and bottom. I even put some styrofoam in and around to help insulate and keep it all from moving.

Other reason........I need to get the stuff all put away that stretches from the dining table to the work table in the studio to the storage closet. BIG MESS is an understatement.

On my way to FedEX I got a call from my daughter to keep the grandkids this afternoon so it's a good thing I was already on my way. I felt a little guilty for being so busy lately so we made brownies. Their dad came to get them just as the brownies came out of the oven so they took half home so I won't be tempted and I saved the others for Curry when he gets home tomorrow.

So the work should be there before I head off to the show in AZ and I hope they work for the gallery when they see them in person.

Hum...maybe I can relax for about an hour with the newspaper.

Moving right along...another new gallery!

I'm moving right along......packing up a dozen more paintings for a gallery in Seattle. I hope that things go well and my work will work in the gallery there.........in other words, SELL for them and me. It's a gallery that has been there for about 34 years, Gallery Mack, Art Connection. Whatever happens the owner is a super nice lady from my contact with her so far. Since there will be one encaustic in the shipment I think I'll wait until Monday so it won't have to be in a storage warehouse over a week-end....and possibly a lot of heat. I guess this will be a test of sorts to see how ground shipments will go with wax.

I got the invitations in the mail for sending out for my show at Joyous Lake Gallery that will open August 3 in Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ. This will be my first visit to AZ. I hear it is very pleasant in the White Mountains compared to the heat of the rest of the state in August. I'm looking forward to meeting the gallery owner, Gwen Pentecost, in person finally....super lady.

Wow.............now I'm finally getting the studio sorted out a little and can get back to working on the last little encaustic panel. (Good gosh, it's cobalt violet and orange so far). Next on the agenda is to work on acrylic and canvas again for a bit through some of this heat. Encaustic might be best in the cooler weather when possible. I did go out and look up the beeswax people near here. It was only filtered one time so not as white as I might like for light paints....but it will do fine for darker or medium tones. I was afraid to buy their white pharmaceutical grade since they didn't know if it was chemically whitened. I'll just have to get that stuff from somewhere else when I buy the damar resin crystals. Sooner or later I need to learn to make my own medium if I'm going to work larger. And I ordered some 32 x 32 and 24 x 24 panels...........

With two new galleries, it's going to call for lots of time in the studio. Seems like it's either too many paintings on hand or not enough. But that sounds great to me.

More encaustics

I didn't add a photo the other day while reporting on my trip to Dallas. I was working on my 10th encaustic when I left and started an 11th one at Deanna Wood's one day encaustic workshop. The one I was working on when I left is now finished (I think). I've found that encaustic is kinda like soft pastel, not finished until out the door as you can keep thinking of little tweaks here and there you might add or subtract.

Anyway, the one I was working on when I left is a collage and I used some images from a Whistler show I saw at the Fort Worth Modern back a while ago. So it's titled Patina Series 10, Salute to Whistler. It will actually need more time to "cure" since I used more oil paint in this than usual and it takes longer before you can actually buff it up well.

The other encaustic painting, Patina Series, 11 is strictly encaustic paint......a landscape. I started it at Deanna's studio but just did what I've been doing on other pieces.....loving that texture but being careful that it isn't texture just for texture's sake. After all, it's the painting, not the medium.

One more little 12 x 12" panel to go.........oh yeah, and my homemade 24 x 24" canvas covered panel.

It's getting hotter and hotter, might have to do some acrylic on canvas for a time.

Stoking the creative fires!

Stoking the creative fires!

Well............let me tell you, there is nothing like getting together with other artists to stoke the creative fires! And I am feeling SO GOOD............although I have to admit it doesn't take too much to make me feel good. Someone (galleries) saying they love my work,hanging it, and I hope, selling it will make me feel a mile high, talking with friends, eating good food with a couple of glasses of wine...that will do it for me.

With all this said...I'm coming back from a 4 day trip to Dallas to move work to a new gallery, Artizen Fine Arts, taking an encaustic workshop north of the area where I will be staying/visiting with my daughter and an artist friend or two joining us.........all at the same time.

Making Panels

What a Mess!

I'm making a big mess........or should I say extending the big mess in my studio. Soon I'll have no where to work/paint. I decided...heck, make some panels for a little larger encaustic paintings. I can do it...yeah!

So I dug out all the metal rulers and a square, an old miter box (although I'm not going to miter), glue and clamps and set out to make the first one of two 24 x 24" panels. These will be framed with floaters if my experimenting turns out to resemble something I'd want to put my name on. (hum...reminds me I'm not putting my name/signature on these pieces on the front...hope that's okay with people if they're signed on the back only).

I'm letting the glue dry now and will then stretch some unprimed cotton canvas I found in the closet over the panel. I'm using 1/4" plywood for the face, and something called aspen wood( not real hard though) on the back for the braces. Seems like I delved deep in my memory and decided I thought butted corners are stronger than mitered and that helped me just plod along since I'm not that great with a saw that you have to put muscle power behind anyway. I placed, glued and clamped two edges that were parallel first (hope that's a good idea) and measured to cut off the other pieces to fit between on the other sides. I did as little measuring and sawing as possible by buying this stuff pre-cut at Lowe's.

I haven't read anything about having to put a coat of anything on the back for warpage so on I go. I won't need anything on the front of the panel since encaustic wax doesn't react with wood like oil does. ...and this will have canvas next to the wood. Will I glue this canvas down or not?....I'm not sure but I don't think it's supposed to be necessary. When all is ready, I will layer, brush on a couple of coats of encaustic medium, burn in and be set to go....I hope, crossing fingers.

he he he...just noticed that I can see myself taking the picture in the mirror of the old wardrobe holding painting supplies.