encaustic and mixed media painting, part of my new series

80 cm x 80 cm

 Here is the finished painting, I think. I shared the first steps in the previous blog.

I started with a beautiful, smooth cradled board, primed it with yellow milk paint and began the under painting in oil.

The next step is to cover the whole surface with clear encaustic medium and add oil glazes and texture. I build layers with the oil and encaustic and go back and forth. Occasionally I will add a touch of oil pastel, but very little, since it has a paraffin base, not beeswax and I do not want the 2 waxes to be incompatible.

I pound textures into the wax and layer stenciling to get the finished look.

detail

painting process

Here are images of the first few days of oil under painting. The piece is now ready for the encaustic surface and texture.

Into the Silence #?

Finished

encaustic over the oil

a painting's progress

under painting

I haven't been able to spend much time in the studio for several days. I have the terrible cold/flu that is going around and I got so bored with feeling weak, congested and feverish, I would walk in the studio and move paint around for a few minutes each day. This painting was almost finished  before I got sick, so now I am ready to call it finished.

Wave of the Sea, Dissolve in the Sea

more underapaintings

 I am working all day, almost everyday in the studio. I am getting closer to what I want to achieve, but still have a way to go. I hope I get there in this lifetime.

3 more encaustic and oil painting

 







































 I posted the under paintings a few days ago. These are the finished works with lots of encaustic textures and oil glazes.

detail

detail

Encaustic Arts Magazine

I wrote an article for the new winter edition of the online, free magazine, Encasutic Arts Magazine. Check it out. There are photos and links as well as articles by other artists working in encasutic:
http://www.eainm.com/encaustic-arts-magazine/

oil underpainting before the encaustic

3 more paintings are ready for the encaustic cover and texture. And I have 3 more started. I would like to get these 6 paintings in the series finished before my daughter comes here for Christmas.

larger, encasutic, mixed media painting

detail

oil, encaustic, powered pigments, milk paint.

Into the Silence, 2 new paintngs

Oil and encasutic figurative painting

I finished these 2 paintings. There are 2 more close to finished and I have 4 more fresh, beautiful boards waiting to become paintings.

melting away the layers

Yesterday I was looking for a bigger board for a new figure in my Into the Silence series and couldn't find a blank one, so I pulled out a painting that I did about a year ago and I never felt right about and decided to get rid of it and use the board. Usually, I just put it out in the intense sun and scrape away the encaustic paint, but yesterday I decided to melt it with the torch. I uncovered many layers of previous paintings and here is what happened - with the aid of some scraping, and touch of charcoal:

32" x 40" The under painting revived

starting figurative paintings

Yesterday, I admitted to myself that I always like the beginnings of my paintings better than the finished ones, so I started 3 new paintings, and didn't get too involved with any and kept moving back an forth. Now I am at a place where I have to decide how to finish them.

It sure has been a happy day in the studio. It is delightful to be working in oil again.

the paintings keep changing

I have been going back over the first paintings in my new series and keep changing them. Perhaps, I should take them out of the studio and hid them in the stacks for a while.What do you think?

She is definitely finished - a combination of oil and encasutic

No more on this one

This is a change from the last post.

 

 

My work was chosen....

http://www.saatchionline.com/art-collection/Painting-Mixed-Media-Drawing/Spotlight-on-Latin-America/153961/42672/view/2


This morning I recieved the following message: "You have been featured in the spotlight on Latin American Art. "

That was a nice surprise. It also meant that I had to update my Saatchi online portfolio. You can check out my portfolio at: http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/312358

I shared a wonderful Mexico City weekend with my youngest daughter. She left this morning to go back to San Francisco where she is an art dealer. And I am going back to my Into the Silence series. I have a few more ideas and need to be expressed. Below are a couple of the first paintings in the series that I reworked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 encasutic faces finished

I softened the background on this so it did not look so much like wallpaper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took this with my iPod and the copper doesn't show up well.

before softening the background

encaustic on board, 24" x 24"

first day

2 paintings of the Into the Silence finished.

2 days ago

 

 

 

The series , Into the Silence, so far

I have an impromptu one day class on Wednesday, and have to scurry to clean up my studio where I have spread materials on all 6 tables. I will put the paintings that I have been working on in the stacks so there will be room for the students.

I feel that it will be good to take a break, since my biggest problem when I am working figuratively, is over working. I probably should hire someone to burst into the studio and take the paintings away after I have worked on them for a couple of days.

Here is the series so far:

Oil and encaustic

encaustic

encaustic

encaustic

encaustic

oil and encaustic

encaustic

encaustic

encaustic

in process - encaustic

just oil so far

encasutic