How Did I Do That?

After all these years of making art, I sometimes wonder "How did I do that?" I study the painting  up close and try to remember what I used to get that effect or what colors were on my palette during that series.

I always work in series, with rare exception.The exception being when I am experimenting with different mediums and tools. When I am in that special series zone, my excitement and energy pushes me to eagerly keep going . Waking up exhilarated with new ideas,  I work on 3 paintings at a time to stay fresh.

In the series, Women Who Changed the world, you can see the continuing style in each of the paintings:  http://www.artsyshark.com/2015/11/02/featured-artist-ezshwan-winding/

Here is one that I made in about 2010. I still move in close and try to figure out how I did it. This painting of a street musician remains one of my favorites. It was done entirely in encaustic and I recall that I did a lot of scraping.

I published a book, Painting Faces in Encaustic, that I had to look at recently to see how I laid out the hot palette. Of course I had been using oils, almost exclusively last year.

Here's one that sold almost immediately out of a gallery. I must have been in an encaustic zone.

I seem to be out of any zone at the moment. I am awaiting 4 portrait commissions and perhaps it is better to let my muse rest, until it is time to begin those.

Archives and Sold Paintings

A little 6"' x 6" that was sold years ago. A friend's poem, printed on a wood cut is the background

The model for this encaustic painting bought it in 2006

I have taken the last few weeks to work on updating my website. I have added images to my online galleries and archived older work; some of which I had forgotten about until I moved tables away from the art stacks and pulled out older work.

I also found old encaustic paintings that I didn't like any more. I put them outside in the intense April sun here in San Miguel de Allende and the layers of wax soften rapidly and can easily be scraped away. I have a mound of old wax piled up.

I am starting to miss working in the studio, but the weeks of computer work has left my clothes spot free and my finger nails are clean for a change.

I hope I can reuse some of this.

The Opening Reception was packed

Here are some shots from opening night. There were lots of people, champagne, popcorn and Cynthia had sales. We will have the show up until January 16th.

Cynthia's room

Show opens tomorrow

I have spent the last couple of days hanging my paintings in the gallery for this show. It is a mother and daughter exhibit.  It feels good. I co-owned 2 art galleries in the States and was a professional art installer - it just seemed natural and spontaneous. We'll go back to the gallery today to finish up and get ready for tomorrow's reception. San Miguel de Allende is filled with people and the tourist season officially has started, so I hope the next 2 wees will bring us a lot of people to view and buy

 I am showing my Into the Silence series. Although it is not the newest series, it has not been shown publicly, except for the Internet sales.

Receiving, oil and encasutic

This painting is intended to be the focus of the first room in the gallery, since it already has won an award on a online competition; but, while trying to move the light on it, it fell; so that will have to be fixed today - by someone much taller than I.
The building that houses the gallery is 400 years old and the ceiling is very high. I will take pictures of the installation when completed and lit properly.

Back to encaustic abstracts

I am getting ready for a gallery show in January and although I have lots of new figurative paintings to show, I wanted to make a few new abstracts. I have piles of older paintings that I am not satisfied with and started painting over a few. Here are the results:

This was the under painting

after a few days work it turned into this

Similar feel, but smaller and no shot of the under painting

I had started to scrape off all the encasutic paint and I discovered that the board had a beautiful stain. I left the side painting and worked on the middle part for a couple of days, filling in the lower scraped part with clear encaustic and working on top of that.

A Time of Witness

For those you you who are disturbed that I have put encaustic aside for  a while, I ask you to go to my website to the older figurative paintings that I made, entirely in encaustic. http://www.ezshwan.com/http___www,ezshwan.com/Time_of_Witness.html

While there, you can check out other styles . I feel I have done almost everything that I wanted to do in encaustic. It is just a technique and a means to an end. The question is; is the problem solved?
As artists. we create the problem and only we know when it is solved - if we are lucky.

Quiet Time, Sold

Process of making a figurative encaustic painting

http://youtu.be/FbtcgM2wNFk    Click on this link to see the video

Cambridge University Press bought this image

I just sent another invoice for the right to use this image of an encaustic painting to Cambridge University Press in Spain. Previously, the original press in London bought the rights to print, for this same painting.

Nice to still have the painting to sell. Check it out on my website: www.ezshwan.com, under Time of Witness.

El Mercado

Water Icon, oil and encaustic

I did 4 icons with element themes. This one is water. The element of water rules emotions,;the ocean. lakes, steams, ponds, wells, rivers, intuition, and the womb.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love is emerging from a lotus on the center panel while dolphins play in the background.  On the left is Vivian of the Lake form the Avalon tales, holding the sword Excalibur that came from the waters and was returned to their depths after the rein of King Arthur.  On the right, the angel Gabriel guides the beings who live in the waters.

At the time I made these icons, I was living in Ashland OR. In the center of town is  beautiful Lithia park. I would hike there and also spend hours sitting and watching the cascading waters come tumbling down from the top of the mountain. The back of the icon is my interpretation of those wonderful falls. It is painted completely in encaustic.

"The 3 Eves," encaustic, oil, gold leaf

 

Another modern icon painted in oil and encaustic on birch panels. I have used gold leaf behind the central figure and carved through the encaustic on the bottom to reveal the silver leaf.

"The Three Eves" On the right panel, we see Lilith, who in the Hebraic tradition is said to be Adam's estranged first wife. In one story,God created her and Adam as twins, joined together at the back. Lilith demanded equality with Adam and failing to achieve it, she furiously left him. In another version of the myth of Lilith, she would not succumb to Adam's demands that she lie beneath him during sexual intercourse. Lilith would not meet this demand of male dominance, so we see her in my work as a free spirit, self assured, joyful,powerful and independent.

On the left panel we see the typical portrayal of the biblical Eve. Shy, submissive, self effacing, she is the perfect follower of the superior male.

In the center I have created my version of a more modern Eve. The expression of the feminine that has finally emerged, after more than 2000 years. She is a whole woman, complete unto herself, and the combination of the goddess Isis, superimposed over the characteristics of the Madonna. The early Christian church removed all ancient symbols of the goddess and replaced them with a softer, self- deprecating, perfect woman in the image of Mary. 

I have used astrological fire symbols as as well as the Lion, that is an embodiment of the fire element, to indicate the burning of the old feminine image and clearing the path for today's woman.

under painting

I didn't have much time in the studio today. I spent the morning catching up on errands and later studying for my Spanish conversation class tomorrow. It is a 2 1/2 hour class and my brain is tired afterwards.

I got some more paint on the boards - still working on the underpainting. I am finding that I really need to get it right before I apply the encaustic.