Homebody

These are the women that came to my studio over the weekend and pulled me out of my winter funk. That's my end of the story. Their end of the story is that they learned encaustic and had an exciting day making work that they are really proud of. As they should be.

Here is Kay using the scraper on the wax. The leaf with the gold highlights is a section of one piece she made. I'll show it in full at the end. Kay brought us a pear-chocolate-pudding that was yum. Not that we spend our time eating - lol.

Christine made this scientific piece for her husband who works with equations and such. I love seeing the layers of images through the wax.

Hi Christine! She brought enchiladas, brownies, cookies, lots of amazing food to share. She says, "honey, I'm from Louisiana. We don't go anywhere without food!" There is a world of sociology behind that statement; a world of love, generosity, extravagance and community. I'm going to make more food for future classes; I want to be like Christine. (and OMG, her enchilada recipe! A new tradition.)

Here she is painting on her hot palette encaustic face. Beautiful, isn't it?

Next we have Nancy's winter tree in a field of sparkling snow. Nancy took to the wax like a duck to water. She shared stories and photographs of her travels and experiences. Thank you Nancy, for the wonderful bits of fabric and photography that you gave us.

Nancy smooshing a piece of tissue into the warm wax. She made the most pieces I think. These guys were really productive.

This is Nancy's encaustic painted face. Doesn't she have a shy bit of whimsy in the curve of the mouth?
And I love the brushwork on the shoulders. Yellow always does it for me.

Kay took a broad interpretation of her face. Something about it reminds me of a Spanish matador. The sweeping gray stroke of the collar and judicious use of gold works well to frame the face.

This is Christine's face; a faithful rendering of the example in her packet. It may seem cruel to ask wax beginners to start out on such a difficult task but as I explained to them it is good practice in observation and you learn more from attempting something rather difficult that you do just skimming over something easy. Almost everyone who does this exercise is shocked by how good they are at it. That really gets you motivated to keep at it.

The beautiful primary colors.

And here is Kay's piece in it's entirety. The leaf is a pressed leaf that she embedded in the wax.

I know I said I wasn't going to teach in January but this was sooo much fun and pulled me out of my winter funk and maybe you will be at sixes and sevens in January too so if you want to learn wax with me in a 2 day class just go to this link and let me know. Once again, I only have room for 4 and if the weather is dramatic we will reschedule for the following weekend.

Plus I'll be making Christine's enchiladas for all of you. Toot sweet!!