IEA Retreat

This will be a short check in. I just returned from 4 days at the International Encaustic Artists' Retreat last evening. I was unfocused and tired much of the time at the retreat but woke up today clear-headed and wishing I'd shot more photos for you. It was a successful retreat and I learned a lot.

Encaustic is so broad and there is so much you can do with wax that there is no end to the new discoveries. And the shopping is fun too; lots of lovely colors and tools to collect. 

There was a beautiful gallery show titled "Encaustic Masters" and that's my piece on the wall. The opening was a solid crush of people; it was great fun.

On the home front John worked hard getting the harvest in ahead of the rains. The garage is full of produce while my car sits outdoors. Here are just a few pictures; it's too dark in there to get very good ones.

John's pride and joy; the Orenco gold tomato that he has kept going from a sport of a red roma. We love this tomato and he offers seeds through Seed Savers Exchange. As you can see it is thick walled and similar to the roma. It's so pretty in salsa fresca with red tomatoes, cilantro, and green chilis. 

Along with everything else we have a new septic tank now. Nothing like a little noise and mayhem to rattle your nerves. 

Beans.

Onion seed heads.

These are Magnum Orange Habaneros. They're hot.

These are called Tiger Teeth and originated in the Caribbean. 155,000 Scoville units.

This is Aji Limon hot pepper from Peru.

This is the Mayan Red, another habanero.

Some Orenco Gold tomatoes.

Some of the corn that will be ground up for polenta.

Gotta go now. Stuff's happening!! Art and Soul this weekend; I'm teaching 2 days. See some of you there. I WILL take photos for you. 

IEA Meeting

Last night our local IEA Group (International Encaustic Artists) met at the home of Linda Womack. We had 10 members in attendance, food and libations and another informative meeting. There was a time for sharing projects and then we repaired to Linda's studio for a chance to try out some of the new tools she's been collecting for a class she teaches on encaustic tools.

Members Andrea and Shannon. The work of other members in our group can be seen at the website by scrolling down.

Here is Karl Kaiser trying out a tool that is a woodburning tool attached to a rheostat to control the heat. On the tip of the tool is a metal calligraphy pen tip made especially for wax and available from Enkaustikos. We all got to experiment with the various tools.

This tip is a variation on the tjanting tool. It heats to a controlled setting and the metal tip pokes through the end of the tool, plugging the wax until gentle pressure lifts the plug and releases the wax. This allows you to write or draw on the surface of the wax without fusing afterward.

Linda has several new torch tips that attach by a hose to a large cannister of propane. The tip in the photo above allows her to fuse large areas with the fan shaped flame. She's pretty excited about it! (Natasia Chan in the background.)

Linda demos the mondo flame-o. A good tool for speeding up fusing time on large paintings.


The loops above are the tools that I came home and purchased this morning. They are to be found here on the web and cut through the wax without leaving a burr, saving time and making a cleaner line in the wax.

Next month we are each bringing in paintings of a dessert in wax. I love to paint food, especially pink and yellow food so I'm uber-excited about this assignment. I just can't decide between pink ice cream or lemon meringue pie . . . oh, the yumminess of a waxy pie. So when I get ready to do that painting I'll photograph each step for you.


BTW, my friend Liz phoned yesterday and gave me some exciting news about a wonderful secret that is happening at the Be Present retreat on the Oregon coast in June. I can't let the cat out of the bag yet but for you who have signed up - big doin's. Shhhhh.

Conference Presenters & New Work

What a week and it's only Thursday! I'll show lots of photos and keep the words brief. If you love encaustic I'll link to the presenters at the Conference so you can see the kinds of work represented there. Interspersed will be some new things that I did since returning home. I have an art fair next weekend which is why I've been out of circulation. I'm behind.

Lovely Linda Womack signing her new book for a purchaser. She sold every single book she brought and everyone was buzzing about what a great book it is. You can get one after the 15th on her website. It has techniques, instructions and lots of examples for you to study.

This is Julie Shaw Lutts showing us how she puts her assemblages together. She has a great website for you to visit; all you collage artists will swoon.

The R & F Paint display. Can you say yum yum and bye bye to your buyer's restraint? I went for the paint sticks which are softer and creamier than other kinds in addition to 3 new colors that looked like ice cream. My weakness!

This is Nash Hyon. I couldn't find a website for you but she demonstrated techniques to use on fabric that is incorporated into the wax. She showed us that you can write on it, print on it and alter it in a variety of ways. So many ideas!

Another piece with John's Grandparents in the photograph at the bottom. I love old photographs. If you have family pictures I can use in my work I would love to have them in an email. (Most of mine were lost in a fire last Thanksgiving.)

This is the collage artist Nathan Margalit from South Africa and England. I resonated strongly with his approach (playful and eccentric). He has me using my tacking iron now which I never did previously. Wonderful suggestions from him for making marks on paper to collage.


This is Russell Thurston a completely wild and innovative artist who will put a heat gun to almost anything. He worked with alkyd, powdered pigments (flying through the air!), oil paint, wax paper stencils and pure bravado to create some of the most amazing effects on wax I've ever seen. Very inspiring.


Get a load of my desk. Impossible. No time to clean - I just shove it aside and make enough room for a little piece of work. I owe everyone. I'll get caught up. Just not quite yet.

I'm having too much fun with wax to stop and do what I should be doing.

And making background paper with my carved rubber stamps. I like to get them sloppy wet with acrylic. The sploogie results are better than the crisp ones. Let it drip and run.

Last one. All the photos are from my family collection and that's me in more than one. See you soon!

IEA PDX Meeting

Just returned from our local IEA chapter meeting. It was great! First of all, Linda's newest edition of her book, Embracing Encaustic had arrived so we all got to look at it. The most wonderful thing about this revised edition is the inclusion of the work of many artists along with explanations of how they achieved their various paintings. I'm going to go through the book and try out the techniques one by one. Thank you Linda!!

(BTW, Bridgette Guerzon Mills has 2 pieces in the book. I have always admired her sensitive touch.) Missy Me has a piece in there too. *big smile* You can order your copy here.

We discussed the upcoming show (June 6-27) that will be held at the Newberg Gallery at 115 N. College St. and 99W in Newberg, Oregon. Some of us will be at the Boston Conference then but the rest of the group will attend the opening on June 6th from 5-9 pm. The name of the show is "Encaustic Road Trip" and I hope everyone in the Portland area who is curious about wax will attend. It promises to showcase many styles and I'll have 4 small pieces in it.

Another glance around the room as Carl holds up a piece he created. Lots of wax on this beauty; deeply carved into to reveal the many layers of color. Really nice. Melinda gave us a thorough photo presentation of the Carmel Valley Retreat; we discussed what a great experience that was.

Susan Freedman demonstrated cutting stencils and using them to apply wax onto wax. She had a great tool that made cutting quick and easy. I'm adding this to my studio asap.

This is what it looks like and you can get it at Michaels or similar stores. It works best on paper.

Here Susan is fusing the wax through the stencil. The adhesive spray is in the photo and keeps the wax from flowing under the edges of the stencil. You definitely want to use that with the stencil or you'll be fiddling with little wax puddles for hours (ask me how I know).

Here are some stencilled shapes on the waxed board.

Finally we admired some of the work that will appear in the show next month. It was a hot summer evening in Portland and we had a great meeting.

Encaustic Retreat at Carmel

Joy and gratitude. I just returned from a 4 day IEA retreat at Carmel Valley and I feel like my consciousness has been rearranged in the most wonderful way. I have met the kindest people and learned so much about working with wax that my head is reeling with ideas.

I arrived on Thursday and took possession of my comfy bunk at the Carmel Valley Retreat Center. The setting is lovely; jasmine perfumes the air and bird calls resound across the mountains. The wisteria is in bloom as well as the little japanese irises. Life is sweet in California. But you knew that.

There was a lot of this going on.

This is the lunch scene with lots of Mexican and Thai food. And sunshine. Oh, my pasty Oregon skin was so stunned in the dazzling sunshine.

We were charmed with a night of Margarita Madness. Nothing tastes better on a sultry California evening.

May I introduce you to my room mate, Charlotte Ka from Brooklyn, NY. She's been working in wax for over 16 years and has also worked during that time as a teacher. Meeting her and being exposed to her thoughtful work about the black experience was a deep privilege. She has shown her work in Kenya and Cuba among other places.

We got to meet and hear about the career of NY artist Heather Hutchison. I learned so much from listening to her; about her path as an artist and the things she must consider as she does her work. I loved watching her - the way she presents herself and her attitudes about pricing and crafting a professional persona. She charmed and informed me in so many ways. (Above with our wonderful organizer, Cari Hernandez.)

Then there was Margo; a sweet breath of fresh air with her elastick-y button bracelet that I admired and her sea creature encaustic imagery. She was wonderful on "Project Runway" night; you'll see!

Richard Frumess came from R & F Encaustics and gave us the lowdown on particle wave theory (ha ha - I just like the way that sounds!). Seriously though, he told us about refraction and light and lots of things that make our work beautimous - thank you, Richard, for giving us such beautiful materials to work with and for being one of the most delightful speakers I've ever witnessed. We were all in stitches when he ran the color chart outdoors to show us how the colors changed under different light conditions. His enthusiasm was infectious.

We did a little bit of cut and paste collage on our notebooks and it was really fun! Paper and notebooks supplied by the IEA mother-ship. And thank you very much. Loved the cut and paste.

Last night we divided up into groups and created costumes out of aluminum foil, newspaper, tape (red duct and masking) and plastic tie-wraps. Here are our creations. It was really hilarious; all of us laughed and got all competitive and vied for the favor of our judge, Richard Frumess, for the first prize of encaustic paint.

The costumes were clever but the models were the real show with lots of vamping and attitude in their presentation. They were great!

Naturally we had 2nd and 1st runners up and the woman from Texas burst into tears of joy as any good beauty queen does. Verrrry nice.

And the winner is ...... the mandarin Goddess, wow, my goodness. FAB-U-LOUS job guys. Especially considering half of us were working in semi-darkness as we taped the costumes togther .

On the last day we had 2 incredible demonstrations. Above is the work of Miles Conrad from Tucson. Miles showed us how to cast wax forms from molds. My goodness he is a master of wax. We all watched in awe.

Here is one of his silicone molds and the wax casting from it.

And check out the big orb with the orblets attached. You can imagine the time and devotion that goes into each piece.

I didn't get to see all of Lissa Rankin's demo as my flight was scheduled to conflict but the experience was life changing (I've been having quite a few of these of late). Now I just have to sit quietly with myself and decide where this will take me next. I have the Boston Conference in about a month; my question is whether to throw other things aside and fling myself fully into the wax (not literally!) or to try and keep it under control. Because right now, all I can think about is getting back into the studio and trying out some of the many new techniques I have learned. Time will tell. What gratitude I feel to be faced with such a rich dilemma.