going to the States for navidad

The lunar eclipse has had me up most of the night. It is a good thing that I won't be driving any heavy machinery today. I will be picked up at 6:30 a.m. for the trip to Queretero and then the bus to D.F. airport. I hope to return in two weeks ready to start a new series and conduct the winter workshops.

Merry Christmas to all.

Figurative encaustics

Somebody is spending too much time in front of the computer...wonder who that could be? I am planning on starting a new abstract series when I return from the States in January, but now I have organized my photos, added up sales and workshops for the year, and put most of my figurative encaustics in another video. This will be the last one for a while.

Most of this year's abstract paintings

Since I am taking a bit of a break from the studio, I spent this morning making another YouTube video; this time it is most of the abstract paintings that I made this year. I didn't include everything because I could not get a good shot of a few of them and forgot to photograph a few others.

Coming to the Surace

 

Coming to the Surface, 12" x 16"

It has been so cold in the studio that I can't get the first coat of clear encaustic on the big boards, without the wax "freezing", preventing a smooth application, so I made this little diptych instead.

Inbetween time

This is one of the paintings that recently sold in Pozos. Nick came here today and paid me for it, the one below and some others.

My last two large paintings are finished and I am preparing boards for some new work. I've posted these before...I'm thinking of doing one more figurative from the old family photos and then going back to abstract.

Salsa, 10" x 10"

I sent five small paintings to Galeria 6 in Pozos. This is one of them and I just realized that I don't have photos of the others. That is rare for me because I "always" photograph everything before it leaves my studio - well, maybe not always.

finally, I have posted the oil and encaustic video

This has been a studio free week. I love my Mac, but putting these videos together sure does take time.

new movie

I have posted another retrospective of my work on YouTube.

reworking an old painting

scraping off very old encaustic

applying a thick layer of blending stick

hours later, wiping off blending srick

adding oil paint

I like to blend the oil with my hand

after encapsulating with medium, and fusing, I add more oil and charcoal

some encaustic paint...

Lots more scraping, fusing, adding more oil and charcoal, I am finished for the day.

My muse hadn't completely come out of hiding today, so I decided to rework an old oil and encaustic painting. I had made this one in 1999 and it was not exciting, so I thought there was nothing to loose. I used oil sticks, layers of encaustic medium, charcoal and lots of scraping.

I pulled this one out again

detail

After giving this painting, and me a break, I worked a couple of days adding more oil, encaustic and scraping... I'll check tomorrow to see if I feel it is finished.

 After working on the painting and taking photos for the movie all week, I realized I had badly overworked the painting. It may be salvageable, or not, but I am putting it in the stacks until I forget how much time and materials I used up. The movie is postponed and I am going to study Spanish today and certainly will not post the latest stage of the painting. Hopefully, my muse will show up next week.

Challenges

I have been working on the oil and encaustic painting for several days. I'm not sure that stopping often to photograph the progress in hampering my creativity, but, so far the results are not exciting. Oh. well, tomorrow is another day.

photos for a new video

starting the first layer of encaustic medium

first scraping

oil, encaustic paint and medium on the palette

I have started taking photos of my process of combining oil and encaustic. These are just some of the preliminary steps and I will continue until the painting is finished. It will be a lot easier to organize the sequence when I put the photos into a movie form.

oil stick on top of several coats of medium

Another color added after the first color was encompassed and fused.

Day 7. Time for a break

Another day of work on this painting and I am ready to put it into the stacks and not look at it again for a while. The painting won't have changed, by my seeing will have. I am starting the next one. So far I have about 4 or 5 layers of medium on the board and it needs more and more smoothing.

Day 6

There are still a few areas that need help, but I'm stopping for today and will remove the painting from the studio and live with it for a while.

Day 5

days 3 and 4

Day 2

Progress of a painting

I have begun a new series and decided to photograph the work after each day in the studio. Here is day one. I am using encaustic and charcoal.

A new, old painting

I just couldn't leave that face alone. Today I am satisfied. I think??


While sitting quietly, for a change, in my last workshop, I studied one of my paintings that was on the studio wall and decided it needed reworking. This inspired me to start a new series. A figurative one, but hopefully, I can keep them loose and semi-abstracted.

November introductory workshop

I was delighted to have another group of enthusiastic artists attend this workshop. We start out as strangers, but after two days of working together, I feel we made new friends.

encaustic technique video

This is the recently published video taken in my studio a few weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47EXuxNhHlw

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!