Can I count the layers?

This painting is typical of how I work. If you could have seen the beginning, you wouldn't believe that this is the end result. I worked for three days and at the end of each day, I placed the painting on the wall to be photographed. It didn't look the same out of the studio. Ugh, I didn't like it. I continued in the original direction today, but after lunch I still hated it, sooo, many more layers of encaustic to obliterate the underlying painting. One of the many good things about encaustic is that the bottom layers are not completely wasted. They peek through with the heating and scraping.

If you work in encaustic, do you end up with pounds of wax paint on the surface?

Angry Art?

I brought the previously posted painting to Arte Contemporano, the gallery in San Miguel that is handling my work. The director, Joaquin, is a friend and the gallery is beautiful. They specialize in contemporary Mexican Masters. Joaquin suggested that I enter a competition for Mexican artists and those of us who have lived here over 5 years. (I have been here 7 years.)

I gave this proposal some thought. There could be a chance for my art to be recognized on a national level. 

The first challenge was that photos, or a CD have to be sent before Sept. 30 with high resolution images. I have just ordered a new camera that could do this, but will not have it in time. I could have asked a friend to take the shot. She is not only a wonderful artist, but also a great photographer. She took the photo of one of my paintings for the Encaustic Art Institute book that has just been released; but the biggest obstacle was the reminder that the judges would be looking for angry art.

With Arms Wide Open...

With Arms Wide Open...

With Arms Wide Open..

I have been painting for over 50 years, and have been practicing meditation for over 30 years. Every day I ask to be inspired to create art that will inspire and uplift those who see it. I chose to not even try to make angry art.  What do you think?

With Arms Wide Open

This is the first posting of a series of paintings I am making in a series I call "With Arms Wide Open"

Mexican Sunset!

I haven't posted the new series that I am working on now. I will do that soon. There haven't been enough hours in the day, with the teaching, painting, and studying Spanish, but tonight, I grabbed my camera to capture the beauty of the sunset from my terrace.

Encaustic portraits

I just sold these two faces from my Mexican Women series. They are 12"x12", encaustic on board.

With Arms Wide Open

A new 24" x 24" painting.

The many lives of this encaustic painting

I  decided to  photograph the progress of this painting and it turned out to be a valuable experience.

I usually apply the hot encaustic paint while the painting is flat on the table and fuse it with the torch.  When I put it on an easel,  I get a whole other view of it.

At the end of each painting session, when I think the painting might be finished. I hang the work on a wall in a sun flooded hall that I can see from my desk and the living room.

Each day, as time passed into evening, I felt uncomfortable about the painting. I could then review the work of the previous days in the saved photos and see where I had made improvements or really messed up.

I had gotten to the point where I posted the painting with the medallion on my fan page and website, but still felt an uneasiness about it.

Wednesday and Thursday a few artists visited me in the studio and I asked there opinion about this painting. All three of them went right to the weak spot. I had added a textured small circle to the middle of it and it just wasn't working. Today, I got rid of that spot and enhanced some of the color.


What do you think?

Out damned spot!

This was about the third or fourth day

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2nd day

End of the first day. Hardly the same painting