Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sunshine and gratitude



The paintings for the Now Revolution were picked up yesterday. Today, I realized that I have a non-studio day. Sometimes, I hardly know what to do with myself if I am not making art, but this morning after meditation, I strolled through the center of town to absorb the energies of the preparations for the Day of the Dead celebration. I almost had to pinch myself to remind me that I live here!

Friday, October 29, 2010

more encaustic on paper

I got into the swing of making the paintings on paper. I only threw three of the non successful ones in the trash. In this economy, I'm hoping that being able to offer unframed matted paintings for around $200 instead of starting at $2000 will be an incentive to collectors.

To see all of the Now Revolution Paintings please go to my website: www.ezshwan.com

Friday, October 22, 2010

Group show in Pozos, November 6, Now Revolution

 
This is going to be a wonderfully diverse show. Everyone artist works differently. 
 
Now Revolucion
By: Nick Hamblen

  What does the word revolution mean to you at this moment in time, in Mexico? This was the question that was posed to the five artists of the new Galeria6 show “Now Revolucion.” Speaking as the curator of seven years of shows at Galeria6 I can honestly say the collective answer to this question has resulted in one of the most diverse, exciting and poignant shows we’ve ever had the privileged of presenting.
   The work here, expressed in media that ranges from digital imagery, assemblage, photography, installation, collage, encaustic and abstract painting causes one to think and likely to smile while doing so...


Well-known master, encaustic painter Ezshwan Winding’s revolutionary work for this show is in her words “about the underbelly, the subculture, the seething passion that lies beneath an enchanting surface...like we know Mexico to be.” Winding says that during the process of creating her encaustic pieces the work evolved on it’s own from figurative to abstract.
   “I discovered that the first, underlying paintings, images, words, figures and bold, passionate brush strokes that I put on the board, rose to the surface, covered by increasing layers of encaustic paint. The more I focused the fire from the torch, the more of the energy of the under-painting oozed up to the light. I trusted that these energies were growing out of the dark, reaching and pushing toward the light of balance and the result was a revelation.”  Fans of Windings work, I feel certain, will be yet again amazed at her ability to go further into the depths of her talent and process.

Encaustic on paper

Although I demonstrate painting encaustic on paper in my advanced technique workshops, until now, I haven't explored it much. It is fun and more spontaneous than my usual way of layering up to 20 layers of encaustic then and scraping and cutting to reveal the underpainting. On paper, the paint must be kept thin. I plan on making some more of these smaller, 8 1/2  x 11" pieces before moving on to larger sizes.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Mexico City

Lena, Victoria and I spent the last three days in Mexico City, (D.F.) and each time we visit, we fall more in love with that amazing city. We are artists and the first thing on our agenda was to see new and exciting art. We attended the opening of Vías alternas, violencia, mujeres + arte ,  violence, women  + art. The show is being held at the museo universitario del chopo, a breath taking building designed abut 130 years ago by Eiffel, constructed in Belgium and then moved to Mexico. It was a powerful group show.



The exhibition that moved me the most was by Eduardo Olbés. He is a sculptor, who along with his assistants spent the last two years creating this show where faces of murdered women are painted on bone and the thousand of "bullets" are made of marble, some pieces resembling mandalas for narcos.




Lena and me, Vick was behind the camera
The next day we spent shopping. I always buy bees wax in D.F., but we all found more irresistible treasures. The restaurants were wonderful and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves so much that we began to think about how we can spend more weeks in this wonderful place.


 Check out the link below for more information on visiting Mexico City.


 http://www.mexicocityexperience.com/emails/1010/101110.html

Friday, October 8, 2010

Whew! This one took a long time.

detail
This painting had many lives. There are countless layers of encaustic paint as I moved from a rather serious painting with an obvious subject - the Mexican Revolution, to one that I think of as happy bubbles. I really can't use that as a title. Can I?
detail