Another Painting and Some Other Stuff

Another 20x20". My friend visited today and we discussed the big-big painting I'm going to do for her. Yeeks, I'm scared but also determined to follow the advice I always give to students and that is that you will only improve by spending lots of time in the studio.

Seth sent the cover of his new book on over. It won't be released until March but we are already getting excited to visit with 100 artists and read about their secrets and passions. That yellow arrow points to an image of mine.

And while I'm telling you about new releases I'll give a heads up on the new stencils that Mary Beth Shaw is selling based on my designs. Her stencils are so strong you can use then with hot wax, then just melt the wax off the stencil by laying it on the hot plate after and wiping with a cloth. It really works.

This was supper last night. Although by the time I took this picture the guacamole was almost gone.

And the beans are coming now. Here is the recipe from healthy-recipes-for-kids.com

Sesame Green Beans:

Ingredients:

• Fresh Green Beans (whole or already trimmed)
• 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
• 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons toasted Sesame Seeds (untoasted is fine too)
• Coarse Salt to taste

Steps:

1. Steam or boil green beans for about 2 minutes (still crisp.)
2. Drain the beans in a colander. 
3. Heat a wok or large pan over high heat.
4. Pour or spray a small amount of vegetable oil and spread around the pan.
5. Add the sesame oil and crushed red pepper flakes to the pan. Don't worry if the pan smokes. That's normal.
6. If sesame seeds are not already toasted, add them to the wok or pan at this time.
7. Add beans to the pan/wok and stir fry for several minutes.
8. Sprinkle sesame seeds (if not already added) and course salt over the beans, stir, and serve.

Later gator. xo

Cold Wax II

This is a time of asking the big questions. It has frankly gotten more difficult for me to teach with my voice challenges. I've pretty much decided to take 2012 off from teaching with the exception of EncaustiCamp. I have been teaching and traveling to teach now for the past 5 years and I'm feeling the need to get back to my own work (oh, that sounds pretentious!) ... but surely you know what I mean.

In 5 years great changes occur. New yearnings arise and new issues in the studio. My paintings have been poems (the etchings I did for 12 years), then still lifes (watercolor), then landscapes and interiors (reverse paintings on glass) and then storytelling (acrylic on canvas). After that 5 years of teaching mixed media classes. Getting out of the studio and reconnecting with other artists. Feeding the social part of my put-together. Falling in love with students, encouraging them and encouraging myself to take whatever path beckons. 

Now I feel pulled. I don't like to do my interior work in public but today I feel like sharing this. What I have to express in my paintings is seeking a new form. I still have a story to tell; of life being this lush adventure. Of finding myself in a physical body that has certain affinities, that is picky, near-sighted and yet brave. Of coming to the conclusion that the world is a place of great beauty and great sorrow. 

That's enough for one day. I'm sure each of you is on your own adventure of discovery, change and awe. What an opportunity we each have. Freedom to search and draw our own conclusions; freedom to leave our marks and words behind as we ourselves pass through. 

I love the saying about our ground time here being short. All the more reason to say it, paint it, leave some evidence.  

Cold Wax

Cold wax, hot wax, I simply cannot choose my favorite. Where one is liquid and transluscent, the other is nuanced and minimal. Lush or austere? Why should I choose at all?

I flew into Telluride Airport in a little mosquito of an airplane that bounced all over the sky and swooped around the high mountains sideways. The beginning of my adventure. Not for the faint hearted.

What greeted me next were the most beautiful colors and piercing contrasts imaginable. Alpine wildflowers. A toy city in a box canyon at 8750 ft. elevation. The airport at 9000 ft. is the highest in the United States and sits atop a flat mountain where the runway catapults you out over the tops of even higher mountain peaks.

These are Rebecca Crowell's well-worn tools. 

Yummy oil paints.

Simple tools and media. Cold wax. Oil paint. Spatulas and things to press into the paint.

It was a 6 day wonder. I walked everywhere, even in the afternoon thunderstorms.

I painted what I felt in the colors that bring me joy. 

Making beauty. That's all I want to do.

New Paintings and Road Trip

Another cold wax painting to add to my growing collection. I learn a bit more from each one and see how they relate to the work I have done in the past. Not the far past (I'll get to that) but the past couple of decades since my work has been celebratory and nervous.

This is a close up. I am not a fast worker. I ponder and pick and change and think about what I'm doing. Of course I'm not satisfied. If I'm ever satisfied I suppose I'll be able to stop and I can't imagine that.

I made a new journal as part of a plaster project and this is the back. It is not plaster; only gesso, acrylic and a bit of textile. My daughters in the photo. 

My latest routine is to paint a spread in my journal each day before I start painting for real. Just a warm up that I can paint over, write over, whatever. An opportunity to play.

And look what I found up in the back of the barn. This is oil - a self portrait that I painted around 1972. Ack. It's weird. But there you go.

Road trip. Company coming. Tomorrow. Packing now, reporting later. xo

Momentum

This is my most recent cold wax painting that I finished moments ago. I like the depth of field I see in it; that some parts are in focus and some not. I like the colors too. It isn't really getting any easier so a success here and there is a good thing.

This is the mess I still haven't cleaned up in the studio. I worked mostly with powdered pigment in this one.

And halleluia, we finally got up to 70 degrees here. It won't last but we are thrilled for the sunshine; lawnmowers buzzing in the distance.

I ran around the yard and took random pictures for you.

I have been a lousy reporter.

And I have lots of weeds in my garden as well as a few old favorites.

John's pruning grapes today.

The studio door is open.

We have 2 cherry trees now and cherries on the menu for July desserts.

This photo is for William, the Bleeding Hearts you gave me for my Birthday last year are alive and well; that's saying a lot for this lazy gardener. Yes, I see that dandelion in the background - I'm going out now to disappear it. And clean up the studio. xo

Staying Unruffled

The latest wax emulsion painting. I am completely taken with this medium; meaning to post here, having so much to share (lots of announcements coming soon) but wanting every possible moment to work in the studio. I am so booked up this summer that I feel like I have to make use of every moment now.

I'll be attending the Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusetts in a month, teaching Painting from the Hot Palette encaustic at EncaustiCamp in July and of course presenting the Plaster Online Workshop with Stephanie Lee beginning June 13th.

I've been formulating a recipe to use in plaster projects that will stand up to vigorous water media brushwork and take a crisp intaglio line - yes, there will be things in the class that aren't in the book and vice versa. So add to my list of upcoming events a trip to southern Oregon to check in with Stephanie, plan the online book launch party, stay up late, cook up future plans and make a bunch of messy art. 

I want the whole world to get excited about making art. Then everyone's hands will be too busy for the mischief of war, competition and other such tomfoolery. A simple, good life. Good food, loving families, cooperation, community, time for friends and a slower pace. That's what I'm all about. Hug your neighbor. 

Seeking the New

I am so impatient. This is a slow process; adding a few strokes, staring a long while, pondering, making judgments, reminding myself that I am not making this for others to judge. This is for me, a search for what I find compelling and a language that is my own. (This one 12x12")

This 2nd image was done before the one preceding it and I like it less. I like the more nuanced, the more ephemeral. But that's today. Each time I go into the studio I find another clue in my search. (8x8")

And then there are the insistences of daily living. Those promises you made. The demands of the body for meals, maintenance; that stuff. You lose the thread. 

The next time you enter the studio things have imperceptibly changed. Still you pick up the tools and begin again. Down the rabbit hole. 

I don't want to to anything right now but paint.

Cold Wax

I spent 3 days on this little painting; 3 days of glorious fun. It is 8x8"- cold wax and dry pigments.  

Never Say Never

This is cold wax. Years ago, when I cleaned up my studio after 12 years of oil based zinc plate printmaking (etchings) I swore I'd never let oil back into my studio. But then encaustic snuck under the door. And one thing always leads to another.

So here are the suspects. Dorlands cold wax. CitraSolv. Dry pigments and oils - tools, gloves, rags, ventilation, the whole wonderful, stinky, gosh-awful business.

The hardest part is waiting for things to dry. Overnight!! my friends. While I tap my little toes. The images above were where the little canvases were at the end of day one.

And at the end of day two; still not finished, hardly even started but I wanted to share my pain. What you can do with the cold wax is so similar to some of the plaster painting techniques that I am in a frenzy of experimentation and manic happiness. Then I will try some of the techniques with slow drying acrylics. One of my mentors told me to slow down and focus but if that were possible I wouldn't be who I am. I am just not product driven. I am a girl who still likes to play in the "mud".