Sunday...

making miniature copper barbed wire…

playing with silk and rust…

cooking onion jam...

fancy drink in the bath…

What a fabulous Sunday – hope you have enjoyed sharing a few snippets!  I’m off to check out the other Sunday Snippets and see if I can get back into the swing of blogging… 

A day in the studio...

Preparing to mount some linen...

All prepped and ready to hit the studio...

The colours of the day...

First stage... Pastel on raw linen...

And the magic begins as the colours mix...

Time to heat up the wax...

First layer of encaustic medium on and fused...

Setting up a little photo shoot for the next stage...

Photo shoot felt stilted and fake... Hopefully more time playing will help uncover some authenticity...

Blah! Heat gun just died - it does that sometimes... Must be a sign to start working with the flame...

Contemplating an image...

Line work...

Burnishing the transfer...

Revealing the transfer, now to fuse...

Not yet titled

Encaustic and transfer on mounted linen

600 x 600mm

2011

  

Come on over...

Want to vicariously hang out in my studio for the day? Pop on over to my new art page and check out the pics I am loading at every stage of todays work…

New work…

Fear and Sadness

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic, pastel and transfer of mounted linen

600 x 600mm

2011

I can feel a new series bubbling away within me here…  

 I feel that I will be able to developed a “language “with this style which will make my work more “readable”… 

I’m excited, but also apprehensive about putting so much of what is in side “out there” to be looked upon…  

I feel it’s time to be more open… 

There are more changes on the way as I begin to shed the protective layers…

Tea Taking Paraphernalia

Tea Taking Paraphernalia

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic, tea and spoon on mounted linen

600 x 600mm

2011

$250

The opening night of Infused is tonight at The Swich Contemporary Art Space.  I have been in and had a look at the show and it looks fantastic.  It was so much fun working on this piece and contemplating all things tea.

This is the artist statement that accompanies my piece...

“Tea Taking Paraphernalia”

While exploring tea for the Infused exhibition I began contemplating the parallels between tea and other drugs. 

Both the taking of tea and drugs are often steeped in ritual, both provide comfort, become ingrained in habit and require specific paraphernalia. 

Similarities can be seen between the chopped leaves at the centre of both the tea and marijuana rituals.  Connections are also present between the spoons used in tea making and in the cooking up of injectable drugs. 

“Tea Taking Paraphernalia” is a mixed media encaustic painting, created using real tea for the pigment.  Tea leaves float within the texture and the used spoon adds a sculptural element, hinting at the parallels between tea and drug taking.

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If your local or in the area during July I hope you can get along and see the exhibition in person.

 

Workshop

Looking to learn how to use some exciting new materials?  Keen for something inspiring to do this weekend? Check this out…

SOLD

Starlight

oil and silver leaf on linen

920 x 730mm

2002

I just got word that this painting sold in at the Black and White exhibition at Drawing Point Gallery.  I’m sad to see it go as it’s a long-time favourite, but I hear the new owner loves it and that makes me smile. 

I’ve also sold a couple this week in my 9th… 9… $90…9:00… over on facebook.  Why not pop by to see which ones or perhaps nab yourself a bargain. 

Creating with Tea...

I’ve been sprinkling, rubbing, boiling, playing and loving painting with tea in my creative space this week. My studio smells so good! All for an up coming tea themed group exhibition, titled Infused, at my local art space The Swich.

It’s so much fun to be pushed out of my comfort zone and into exploring new subjects with my work. I can’t wait to see how this piece turns out, as I don’t have a firm plan, just an idea of the feel I want and a firm desire to have fun with it.

psst...‎9th… 9… $90…9:00… If you don’t know what this is all about yet click the link and find out – you don’t want to miss out on this!

A lovely infusion…

Stopping for a cuppa is often a stalling/procrastinating tactic on a painting day, but not today.  Today I shall be making lots of tea and it’s all in the name of research and “paint” prep….

Delivering Donations to the Displaced

Hot off the work bench, I literally only finished this piece minutes ago.  I’m really happy with it, but I am not sure about the name, I’m hoping something more eloquent will come to me…

It’s the latest in my community series and it is about my memory of the well worn path through our local evacuation centre during the floods.  Many, many locals who were not affected donated anything they could to those in our community who had lost so much.  It was such a help to me to be able to do something positive amongst so much devastation and I hope that in some small way it gave comfort and practical assistance to those in need.  

Every time I visited the evacuation centre the piles of donated goods was larger and not just piles of used things, but specially purchased items, the specific requirements that were called for, one day it was toiletries and baby goods another day it was, sheets and towels or cleaning gear and gum boots. It was uplifting to see the community reaching out to help those in need

In my painting the evacuee’s are represented by the scattered dots, the people I saw when visiting the evacuation centre where in shock, wandering, seemingly aimless and scattered around the grounds.  The ark of dots in the corner represents those on a mission to deliver goods and offer a hand in any way they could.   It still brings tears to my eyes to think about just how many people where at that evacuation centre and it was just one of many. 

Anyway I didn’t intend for this post to be sad, so to end on a more positive note here it is, my latest painting…

Delivering Donations to the Displaced

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic on mounted linen

600 x 600mm

2011

What do you think?

Creating again!

My creative space is up and working again in our fabulous new home.  So much has happened since my last post.  We are all settled in at the new place, I have three paintings out in two different group exhibitions and one in a competition.  We have been on a road trip for a family wedding and I’ve had a little interview uploaded on to You Tube (my 22 seconds of fame!).  And then on my return to blog land I find we have a new home for our creative spaces as well, exciting times!

I’m so happy all of the busy, busy days are over and I can settle back into some sort of normal rhythm.  The painting that is on my work bench has waited so long to come to life and I am really happy with how it is coming along.  Hopefully I will be able to share the finished piece in the next couple of days.   

I’m very happy to be back here in blog land too, I can’t wait to find some time for visiting and catching up on what you have been up to.

It’s on again….

So excited to see this news arrive in my in box this morning, it’s time to sign up for the Sketch Book project again.  I signed up rather late in the project last year, so I am keen to get in early this time…  So I can procrastinate for months and months and cram it all in at the end – again!  What is it creative types – why do so many of us work that way?

It’s such a thrill to have my little sketch book out there in the world, especially when an email arrives to tell me someone has looked at it.  I can’t help wondering what they think of it, someone I have no other connection with, flipping through my sketch book on the other side of the world.

I’m thinking I might choose “Monochromatic” as my theme this year, I like working monochromatically; I think I can get comfortable with that.  Are you going to join in this year?

A strange little job…

Today one of the jobs on my "to do list" is removing the wax residue on these little copper balls.

They will be part of my third attempt at the still in progress “Entwined in the Community” painting. The wax that is on them is left over from when they were imbedded in the first attempt.

I’m off to boil the jug to get them all cleaned up. What strange little jobs are you up to today?

Cooking in the studio

Cooking today, but in my creative space, not in the kitchen…

Ingredients

• 1 kg pure bees wax
• 200 gr refined bees wax pellets
• 220 gr damar resin crystals

Method

Mix together all ingredients and melt over low heat stirring constantly until combined (about 30 minutes). 

Ladle mixture into patty cake tins and wait till cool and resolidified.

Pop out of tins and store until next painting day!

My favourite kind of cooking – mixing up encaustic medium.  It feels so good to have a big fresh batch all ready to go.  The possibilities of it are endless; I wonder what paintings this batch will become…

For those of you following my disaster in the studio yesterday, take 2 didn’t go well.  But I will resurrect this piece, take 3 will be the winner – I just know it.

Disaster in the studio…

While threading the twine through the copper balls late yesterday afternoon I bumped one – hard, I cracked the wax supporting it near the base which meant it was no longer embedded firmly.

I was furious with myself and walked away to calm down, when suddenly the solution for how to mend it came to me.  Wanting to get it sorted out straight away, I took a deep breath and headed back into the studio, I should have just stayed away…

Heating the substrate from below was a good idea, but it required more delicacy and patience than I had to give at the end of the day.  Now I have a smooth puddle in my lovely textureL.  

I don’t think it is reparable; I am going to try, this morning while I am feeling fresh, but I think I am going to have to end up melting the whole painting off and starting again.  It is one of the beauties of encaustics that I can do that, but it’s so sad as I really loved the texture in this piece and I was ready for it to be finished so I could move onto the next piece that is on my mind.  

I suppose these days happen to make us appreciate the days when everything goes right…

So close… but still so far away…

Not too long now in the grand scheme of things...   

but the next few weeks are going to be torture...

I just want to move in right now!

"Entwining"

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Today I hope to get the entwining part of my latest work “Entwined in the Community” done.  It will involve lots of carefully, but forcefully find paths through the copper balls for the needle and twine.  

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Time consuming and a little frustrating, but oh so satisfying as it the piece is so close to finished…

I wonder if anything simular is happening in other creative spaces across the globe…

It’s a bit like watching grass grow…

I’m spending a lot of time today waiting for copper to cool and wax to set. 

Detail of “Entwined in the Community” in progress

Encaustic and copper on mounted linen

Every time I paint a layer I have to fuse it (heat the surface with my heat gun) and in the process the copper wire balls heat up.  Then I have to wait for it to all cool down and set again so I can paint the next layer (the copper keeps it heat for quite a while – so it is making the process quite drawn out).  

If I moved onto the next layer before it was really cool and set I might dislodge the balls with my paint brush.  In reality there is so little to do until this piece is finished, but it is going to take some time and patients to get there.  I’m not very good at all this waiting business! 

Anticipation…

We are getting really close to living here now…  I can’t wait to hang out on the deck every day; it’s so peaceful among the tree tops, listening to the water trickling down our little creek.

  

We don’t have an exact date yet, but soon, about 3 weeks.  They are going to be the longest 3 weeks ever!

Work in Progress...

I’m loving the background I am working on in My Creative Space this week.  I have my fingers crossed that the whole painting goes as smoothly as this stage has, as I have already entered it in a competition!  

 

 The vision in my head is great (it will be a bit like this one), just got to hope I can bring it to life…  I have a bit of time to rework it if it is a flop, so not too much pressure...

Wish me luck.

Box Making…

No painting today, I’m making a box...  

I’m speaking about my arts practice tonight at the Creative Generator [Social] Networking Event.   I know public speaking – ARRGGHH, I said yes really quickly before the chicken in me could think about how nerve racking it was going to be!

But back to the box making. … I am taking along this piece, Community Ties and so it makes it there and back safely, I am making it a little box.  

If you have something precious that needs boxing, check out this lecture for some great tips.  He makes some really valuable points within the lecture, my favourite being” If you show people that you honour and respect your work, they will too”.  

Wish me luck for tonight, my stomach is doing summersaults!  

“Community Connections”

“Community Connections”

Kylie Marie Stevens

encastic on linen

300 x 300mm

2011

Each little circle - a person…

Each little line - a connection…

Each connection - a building block with which strong communities grow…

This piece symbolises the connections and community that I have found online.  Such beautiful and fruitful connections with so much room to grow.

Create some more online connections of your own over here.  

Community Ties

My blogging space may have been quite slack lately, but my creative space is still full steam ahead.  I am madly in love with my latest painting.  It doesn’t always feel like this when I finish a piece, but this is the feeling I am always chasing.  Knowing that it can feel this good is what pushes me along through all of the hard work.

"Community Ties"

Kylie Marie Stevens

encaustic, copper and twine on canvas

450 x 550mm

2011

I am embarking on a new series exploring the concept of “Community", for me the copper balls represent the people within the community that are tied together with the twine that symbolises different strands or groups within our larger communities. 

Community Ties - detail

I’m hoping to do a piece soon on my involvement with the bloggy community, but I haven’t yet come up with a way to represent it.  What does community mean to you?  Do you feel a stronger connection with your physical/locality community or your online community?

I hope you are having a good Creative Space day… Pop on over here to join in the fun.

A Fresh Start

"A Fresh Start"

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic on timber

240 x 290mm

2011
$90



I had a really creative day on Tuesday.  I started and finished a new encaustic and reworked two which I had previously thought of as duds...

This is one of the reworked duds, I didn’t have a title for it until this morning, but as soon as I thought of it I knew it was perfect...

I have called it “A Fresh Start”, it seems appropriate on so many levels to me at the moment… 

• I hope that this beautiful sunshiny day is a fresh start for the weather in poor old battered Queensland… 
• I hope the fact that I have now blogged two days in a row is a fresh start for my slack start to blogging in 2011… 
• We put our house on the market this week, as we are soon to make a fresh start in our beautiful purple tree house…

Are you embarking on any fresh starts yourself?  I’d love to hear about them…

New Work

“Create”

Kylie Marie Stevens

Encaustic on canvas

400 x 500mm

2011

$120

No words today, just wanted to share and play along…