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