Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Making a new painting out of an old one

I got this painting back from a gallery last week and put it in the kitchen where I could see it while I was taking a break and eating dinner. I wasn't comfortable with it. The composition seemed awkward.
So yesterday, it went back into the studio for a complete face lift. Now, I am ready to send it back out into the world. It is part of my "Arms Wide Open Series".

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I have been working on this painting off and on for a couple of weeks. I started out by putting it in the hot sun and scraping it down to the board, leaving lovely stains on the milk paint base and a very thin layer of wax. I then starting drawing with charcoal, and scraped out the figures. I kept adding encaustic paint, oil stick glazes, more charcoal and on and on.

I am thinking of calling it "Flirtation" Any suggestions or comments?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Usually, I work to achieve a glass-like surface, but because I teach so many workshops, I experiment with other techniques and surfaces so I can share the information.
These two paintings are like excavations - so the titles...Lots of digging, cutting into and spraying water into hot encaustic to create a lava-like surface.

Excavation 1

Excavation 2
I never run out of things to try with encaustic.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

I have received some personal messages from readers who have liked and/or identified with my memoir, but now I am requesting that  any of you who have read my book to please add a comment on the Amazon page. http://tinyurl.com/9s37z7y 

Monday, August 20, 2012

Still reworking

What's my name? 16" x 16"

"Oriental Jewel" 12" x 12"
I am pulling more and more old paintings out of the stacks and working over them. With encaustic, it just seems to make them more interesting and luminous. Here are two I finished today. I have many more unsatisfactory paintings that are waiting to be saved. At this rate, I can keep busy for many weeks.

I can't think of a name for the orange painting. Can anyone suggest a title?

Friday, August 17, 2012






Seems to be a re-do time in my life. Still working over old paintings that didn't stand the test of time and now I am re-photographing older work whose images disappeared with the last hard drive crash, so I'll post some of them.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The marching band got the festivities started - after the fire crackers before dawn

The dancers were getting ready for a long afternoon of dancing

The closed street offered a playground for children




 A contact in costumes.
My usually quiet neighborhood bursts into life and noise one weekend a year. They close off the street for 2 days and the party continues well into dawn, including fire crackers starting at 5 am. I'm not sure what they are celebrating, but I love watching the dancers, and only once a year, it is entertaining.

I wish I could include the sound!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Free eBook

Starting tomorrow, August 13, I am offering a free download of my eBook,  Fireworks at Dawn, An Artist's Memoir. If you do not have a Kindle, you can get a free app at Amazon and download the book on your computer, phone, iPod or iPad  This offer is good for 5 days, so if have an interest in my life, here is your chance. http://tinyurl.com/9s37z7y  

Saturday, August 11, 2012


I have a lot of older paintings in my stacks that I feel are not great. Some times I leave them alone for months or even years and then pull them out when I feel inspired to re-work them. Here is one I worked on yesterday.  This actually is the 3rd re-work.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I am
 packing these paintings today to ship to the Encasutic Art Institute in New Mexico.
When I was in Oregon in June, I showed one of my daughters images of this series and she said that they didn't look as if I did them. I do get into a "zone" when I am working on a series and when it is over, it is over. Now I am working on another figurative piece. It is different from anything I have done before.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Homage to a Great Musician
This is a painting, oil on canvas, that I made in 1987, 4 years after my husband Kai Winding died of a brain tumor.  There are images of his discography, silver Playboy jazz award (one of many) a Downbeat award for jazz trombone (one of many); his trombone; four of his albums, (there were hundreds); a collection of things we collected on our travels - Japan, Moscow, Spain, Switzerland; our favorite Hungarian wine; a photo of him by an Italian photographer and a snap shot of us taken in Montreux, Switzerland. For more information about Kai, see his official website: http://bjbear71.com/Winding/Kai.html

Friday, August 3, 2012


I had been doing so much on-line work - setting up my images on artists' site, etc. and teaching, that I haven't spent much time in the studio. I did finish this small painting, 6" x 6".