Small encaustic

6 x 6 encaustic & mixed medium

I love script, letter forms, and, as is obvious here on this blog, circles. I'm also starting to realize that I like grids (looking at my tumblr archive) in some way, but I like the juxtoposition of organic spontenaeity and lines and circles. I vaguely remember reading in the past, that all life, organic and inorganic is based on mathematics. That's as far as I got with that information. Math and I don't come close to mixing. Actually, we're like oil and water. So I don't know what that means with regard to what draws my eye in. I do believe that the subconscious is at play in art. I've often realized, long after finishing a piece, what it really represented to me . . where some subconscious stuff . . somehow . . eeked it's way out onto the canvas, and after I had become distanced from it, I could see it plainly.

I have a few more encaustic paintings that are coming to completion. It often happens, that when I post an image here, I can see more easily where I might need to tweek a little.

I'm building up enough work to finally get them professionally photographed. It will be nice to see images of what my eye sees, rather than what the camera decides it will present. There is no blue in this painting (lower right) and there's glare in the lower right.

Reworked . . .

The third of Three series was too symmetrical for me. So I reworked a little.

Time spent away from it made it less "precious" . . if anyone knows what I mean . . more learning here . . making art feeling "lighter" . . less of a, dare I say, struggle? Doing anything with less struggle is . . well . . lighter . . more ease . . more enjoyable. Another lesson starting to be learned. I say . . starting . . because, for me, change is slow and patience is key.

Second encaustic

I had watched Wax Works West's wonderful DVD on paper and encaustic yesterday. Seeing the melted wax inspired me to start the exhaust fans and heat up the palette. This is the other one I did. Not sure why photos of lines and edges of panel bow . . some technical thing with photography.

Encaustic, collage, oil on panel

Back to encaustics

I recently learned that my preference with mediums is to be able to subtract as well as add. So I'm going back to encaustic. Mmmm . . love it . . and do not 

  encaustic, collage, oil on panel

know why. It was quite a journey and a challenge to learn this medium, but I find it is a pleasure to work with, even with all it's challenges. I felt that I was getting very tense working with acrylic, and it was not a medium I could subtract from. The joy has come back to my painting! Hurray. I have another to post that will have one final tweek. I did TWO encaustic paintings yesterday! Amazingly this photo is very close to what my eye sees. I've set my camera back to automatic. Even with this photography class I'm taking, I understand the information explained during the class, but when I get home, it seems to have disappeared. Yaye for encaustic!!

I'm also going to start using oil and cold wax and am looking forward to that. I have learned a TREMENDOUS amount by looking at a lot of art on Tumblr. It started with looking at what I like, and now I'm putting the "pieces" together that I can use with my work, what appeals to me as far as tone, composition, color, etc. I think abstract is, at least for me, much more difficult than realism. 

I appreciate all of you followers. Thank you for following and visiting here. I value your input.

New photo of below

This was taken outside with image lying down. The greys are a little blue. Looking at the white paper it rests on, around the edges of the image, you can see blue not white. One of these days I'll learn . . patience and practice and referring to the photography book . . maybe by the end of my photo class! I'm still going to keep trying.

Third in "Three" series

Acrylic, collage, & mixed medium on paper

This is the fourth image (work & rework) on this paper . . and circles, and I'm going with this. I love old dials and circular diagrams, print, rusted spokes, washers, etc. Again the photo is as close as I could get to reality. I'm not sure if I will do one more or continue and see where this theme and palette take me. As an image is developed, as I come to the finish, the surface becomes "precious", the additions slower with long periods of thoughtfulness. Interesting how an idea will "pop" up in my mind, that I had not thought of before. This is probably not not uncommon for artists, unless spontenaeity continues throughout their process. Not for me . . yet. 

Still frustrated with how photos come out for me. The top of this is lighter than it is. I took some pics in my studio, and through learning about what florescent lighting does (green), even though I added incandescent lighting, it turned out greenish. So the photo next is the more "green" (no green in this), inside-the-studio photo. This makes me wonder about artwork on the net and how true the color is.

I just might like this better, but the greys and beige are gone. The tones are closer in range. I had it on an easel on top of a white sheet of paper. On the top you'll notice that the white paper behind it is beige. It will take a while to learn this camera stuff.