Lapping the Shore

"Lapping the Shore"

Image size 12" x 12"

Encaustic

As much as I love the look and sound of large waves, there is something very soothing about those beach days when there are just little ripples that come to the shoreline with just a hint of white foam.

Blue Wave

"Blue Wave"

Image size 24" x 60"

Encaustic

This may look familiar to you.  I did the same painting about 6 months ago in a different size ( 24" x 48" ).  A client came into the gallery that shows my encaustics and loved the painting but wanted it a bit longer.

Reproducing the painting was not easy.  Encaustic has so many layers of color and because I had added a glaze of white oil paint as I finished the original painting, it was really hard to figure out how dark I needed to make the colors in the new painting so that when I added the white glaze the colors would be the same value.  Also, because each layer is fused, the wax moves as it becomes molten so control is a relative thing. 

Below are photos of the two paintings next to each other. 

I made a few artistic changes in the new painting, but mostly I tried to replicate the original in color and feel.  

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.

Rising Up

"Rising Up"

Image size 36" x 36"

Encaustic

I'm experimenting more with waves in encaustic.  I know I should try other subjects, but these are just so much fun to paint!

Shore Breaker

"Shore Breaker"

Image Size 24" x 48"

Encaustic

I think this is one of my favorite waves so far.  It's pretty heavy so I must have put a lot more wax on it than usual.  I know I kept layering and layering, building up the colors.  I wanted this painting to have a lot of movement and energy.  I love how the foam from previous waves gets drawn up into the new waves right before they break and tried to get that feeling in this painting. 

Powerful Crest

"Powerful Crest"

Image size 8" x 8"

Encaustic

I love the colors in this painting.  They are soothing, happy and are perfect for my obsession with waves.   Obviously, I love painting waves and I hope you're not getting tired of seeing them because I'm sure I will be painting quite a few more.  In the past, I've enjoyed adding a lot of white to the waves by flicking the wax onto the surface and lightly fusing so that the end result is very textural.  I wanted this painting to have a softer effect so I fused the white dots of color until the surface was smooth.  That makes the white specks have softer edges and they are more translucent than opaque.  I'm happy with the result and for such a small painting the totally smooth surface makes it look like a glazed tile.

Encaustic Spray

"Encaustic Spray"

Image size 8" x 24"

Encaustic

I really disliked last week's painting, so it no longer exists!  I painted this over the red wave.  The colors were just too disturbing for a wave.  Greens and blues are much more soothing.

I wasn't sure what would happen when I tried to layer over the red and orange.  Since orange is the compliment of blue, I was afraid that I would end up with mud.  I was pleasantly surprise to find that the colors didn't really mix.  I love how the bits of red and orange are peeking through.  That gives a nice energy to the painting.

The foam on the crest of the wave is very textural, which reads nicely in person.

Red Wave

"Red Wave"

Image size 8" x 24"

Encaustic

This idea looked much better in my head.  I wanted to paint another wave but use totally different colors and see if it still read as a wave.  What do you think?  I haven't decided yet.  It was a nice experiment though.  I used the same colors in the sky as in the wave and they were competing too much so I put a couple coats of clear medium to knock the color back.  Even though the medium is clear, because it is wax, it is cloudy when it cools.  

Agitation

"Agitation"

Image Size 11.5" x 24.5"

Encaustic

I painted this on oriented strand board (OSB) which I have always called chipboard.  It has thin, random pieces of wood glued together and they make a really interesting pattern.  I left areas of this painting with no color so that the wood shows through.  That's what those brown areas are but I don't think you can really see the texture in this photo.  

Usually, I try to get the wax in my paintings pretty smooth, but in this one, most of the white areas are very textural.  I almost added sand like in my last ocean encaustic, but I wanted to try getting texture with just the wax.  The tricky part is fusing the wax enough without losing the texture.

I used a little amber shellac to do a burn but I also got some clear shellac and added green powdered pigment to it and burned that.  The green doesn't show much but did add an interesting texture.

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