Water

"Water"

Image size 3.75" x 6.5"

Encaustic, watercolor and alcohol inks

I had this small piece of paper that was cut from a finished watercolor painting.  I loved the colors in it and couldn't bring myself to throw it away so I covered it with encaustic clear medium, added alcohol inks, and more wax.   It was a good experiment. 

Distance

"Distance"

Image size 6" x 18"

Encaustic

It really felt good to paint in encaustic this week.  I haven't had space on my worktables in the garage since July for my waxes.  I was attracting bees again after about an hour.  I had forgotten that they are attracted to the smell of the wax.  I'm looking forward to painting something big in this medium very soon.

On The Horizon

"On The Horizon"

Image size 7" x 5"

Encaustic

What is that on the horizon?  Who knows?  It's whatever your imagination thinks it is.  

Pure

"Pure"

Image size 6" x 6"

Encaustic

I was experimenting with texture in this painting.  It has actual texture and perceived texture from the color strokes.  This reminds me of a springtime flower garden.  I know that's a stretch, but that's what comes to my mind.

Tranquil Mist

"Tranquil Mist"

Image size 12" x 12"

Encaustic

One of the beautiful qualities of encaustic is the ability to create a mood in a painting.  I really like the soothing feeling I get when I look at this.  I see it as a landscape, but it could also be seen as an abstract.  What do you see?

Swirl

"Swirl"

Image size 12" x 12"

Encaustic

We finally got a couple of days that were a bit cooler so I did some encaustic painting in the garage.  The heat has been brutal for working outside with a heat gun and melted wax.  I'm looking forward to fall...

Nature's Power

"Nature's Power"

Image Size 24" x 36"

Encaustic

Back to waves again!  They are just so much fun to paint and I can't stop!  This time I wanted to have the wave crashing on the sand instead of just curling.  I'm really happy with the colors on this one.

Gray Day

"Gray Day"

Image size 24" x 36"

Encaustic

I love the beach on an overcast day.  There is something very soothing about the lack of color and a misty sky.  This is my second painting using tones of gray in a wave painting.  This photo shows much more contrast than I see in the actual painting, but in looking at this, I might put a few layers of clear medium to diffuse the colors more.

Dawn

"Dawn"

Image size 12" x 12"

Encaustic

I was trying for an ethereal feeling in this painting.  I love these muted, soft colors even though I usually am attracted to bright colors.  These are very soothing and I like that.

Currents

"Currents"

Image size 18" x 24"

Encaustic/Ink/Oil

As always, I'm experimenting with encaustic and compatible mediums.  This painting has encaustic, alcohol inks and some oil paint mixed in.  I was going to also use some shellac burning in this, but I'm liking the textures from the other mediums so I don't think the shellac is necessary.

Storm's Coming

"Storm's Coming"

Image Size 6" x 6"

Encaustic

My heart goes out to my fellow Americans that are dealing with these hurricanes that have been battering our country.  

Light Rays

"Light Rays"

Image size 8" x 4"

Encaustic/Ink

I painted this small study intending to paint a larger version soon.  I love these colors and textures.  This is a combination of encaustic, alcohol inks and a small amount of pan pastel and oil paint.

Skyscape III

"Skyscape III"

Image size 12" x 30"

Encaustic

Painting is my primary focus once again and really enjoyed finishing this encaustic painting.  I love the colors in it and the shine of the polished wax really makes the colors pop!

May Gray

"May Gray"

Image Size 6" x 6"

Encaustic

Here in Southern California every year we get June Gloom.  The days start out overcast and sometimes stay that way all day.  I've always enjoyed that month of atmospheric calm before the heat of summer comes.

Sometimes we also get May Gray.  This year, we've only had it a couple of days in the past week or so.  As I was painting this small painting, that is what came to mind.  My intention when I started was to do some inscribing and playing around with techniques new to me, but when I saw how this was evolving, I had to leave it alone.  

I'm sure "June Gloom" will be another painting for me.  

Metal Threads

"Metal Threads"

Image Size 5.5" x 6.5"

Encaustic

I experimented a bit more with the metallic leaf pieces that I have and I added some gold threads as well.  The first layer of thread doesn't really show, so I added the second layer as the last element of the painting and coated it with a thin layer of clear medium to protect it.  I have several layers of the metallic chips and they give a very nice sense of the layering in the piece.  I also did a little bit of shellac burning which ended up as the little dots - a different effect than usual, and added some alcohol inks for some transparent color in the early stages.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experiment.  It's nice to work small to try things out, but I think I need to do a large abstract using these techniques.

Musing

"Musing"

Image size 11" x 14"

Encaustic, oil, ink

I really love the textural quality of the paint and the colors mixing in this painting.  I worked on a cradled board and didn't put any gesso on it so I applied the wax to the unfinished wood.  Some of the wood is peeking through the colors and I think it gives a softer effect than having the colors sitting on a bright white surface.  

After applying some of the leftover color from my palette along with clear medium, I rubbed some oil paints in some areas.  Then I applied another layer of clear medium and heated it to move the oil paint around.  This is becoming one of my favorite techniques in encaustic painting.  I also added some alcohol inks in the lower portion including some gold ink, which gives just a little bit of an accent.  I also did a little shellac burn with amber shellac, but it doesn't really show and didn't react as I wanted.  There is also a bit of oil pastel in one of the layers.  

A little of this and a little of that makes for some interesting results.

Arid Landscape

"Arid Landscape"

Image size 8" x 16"

Encaustic and Metallic Leaf

This is another encaustic and metallic leaf painting.  The layers of metallic leaf looks a bit like rocks to me.  It was another fun experiment.

Metallic Motion

"Metallic Motion"

Image size 5.5" x 6.5"

Encaustic

I have some metallic leaf (not gold leaf) that I've had for years and never tried it in any paintings.  It is chopped up in a plastic bag and is a combination of colors - copper, burgundy, charcoal, gold - you get the picture.  

For this painting,  I placed my wood support (that had been gessoed) face down on the hot pancake griddle that I use as my palette.  The melted wax on my palette from previous paintings transferred onto the wood as would happen if you were making a mono print.  That mingled color became my background.  Then, I started adding the metal leaf.  I wasn't sure what would happen to it when I used my heat gun.  I was afraid that the heat would cause it to shrivel up, but it really didn't change at all.  I added some black and rust colored oil paint in certain areas as I continued to layer wax and metal leaf.  I also added clear shellac with white powdered pigment added.  I knew from past experience that my white mixture wouldn't catch on fire as nicely as plain shellac does, so I used a long lighter to heat each area of the white until it moved and took on the texture that I wanted.  I think my proportion of pigment powder to shellac is too heavy with pigment powder and not enough shellac for it to burn nicely.   I wanted the color to be very opaque, which is why I had the mixture heavy on  powder.  Next time, I'll add more clear shellac to my existing mixture and see if the white is still opaque enough and if it burns better.

The metallic element of this painting adds a nice texture.  The first layers that I applied have more wax covering them so they are less reflective, but having additional layers on top of each other adds different levels of shine and gives a real sense of dimension.

I'm looking forward to trying this on a larger painting.

Crashing

"Crashing"

Image size 5.75" x 11.75"

Encaustic

I started this on Saturday when I was doing my encaustic demo.  I was trying to show as many techniques as I could.  Some techniques were covered up as I decided what this painting would become.  I started by using the leftover color on my palette which turned into an ugly dark gray.  I'm sure everyone watching wondered what the heck I was doing.  You can still see some of the initial color in the background, which I really like.  As with many of my encaustic paintings, I don't know where I'm going when I start. I look for something in the wax that will lead me in a direction.  I showed inscribing and adding colors to the marks initially, which I covered up as I made my wavescape. There is some shellac burning done in the lower portion and I embedded sand at the bottom also.  I've never added that before and I'm not sure if I would do it again, but I like it in this painting.

I am so happy that everyone that tried painting an encaustic on Saturday really enjoyed it and they were amazed with how much a painting can evolve as heat and wax are added.  I think their favorite part was doing the shellac burn.

Here is a note that my friend, Nancy Grubb sent to me to post on my blog:

An open note to all of Nancy Goldman’s bloggers:

My daughter, son-in-law and I hosted  Art Salon II on Saturday for artists who work in watercolor, colored pencil, metal smithing/jewelry and ceramics when Nancy demoed encaustic.  It was fabulous– she had us absolutely enthralled.  As she started her demo the circle of participants was about three feet back from the table.  As she continued to work, everyone was moving in closer and closer – the ooooohs and aaaaaahs were resounding along with gasps and WOW, look at that! exclamations.  It is truly an amazing technique.

Nancy had brought along all the materials so 8 or 9 of us made our own small piece under her tutelage – such fun!

We all felt enriched at having that wonderful opportunity to experience a new-to-us medium.  Many thanks to Nancy for so generously sharing her expertise! 

Nancy Grubb

Landslide

"Landslide"

Image size 7" x 7"

Watercolor, collage and encaustic

I started this by attaching rice paper in some areas.  Then, I used watercolor and finished by giving it a coat of clear encaustic medium and adding some detail with oil pastel.  Once I fused the encaustic, the pastel became permanent.

Even with the wax coating, the collage texture still shows and gives an interesting effect.  Also, because of the encaustic, the surface can be very shiny or have a dull waxy finish.