Melbourne and Cold Wax eBooks

Two announcements today in my ongoing effort to get caught up. The first is about my upcoming trip to Australia. The Jervis Bay class has filled but there is still space in the Melbourne class (link here). This will be my first trip down under and I'm really looking forward to finally coming face to face with many online friends that I've met there. I absolutely love meeting other artists and exchanging ideas, friendships and experiences.  I hope you will consider joining me in Melbourne.

I dug up a few cold wax paintings to tempt you.

Everybody has their own "favorite thing" to love about working in cold wax. For me it is the ability to carve into the paint, to build and deconstruct the painting over and over.

One of my online class explorers commented that you can do everything with cold wax that you can do with hot wax and I thought that was a great way of putting it. It's the most versatile of media and you don't have to use a lot of special equipment.  

My second announcement is that the cold wax eBooks arrived yesterday and the first batch has already gone out in the mail. So if you're unable to come to my class in Melbourne (or any other cold wax class that you've heard of) you can purchase the eBook here and study in your own studio. The class has gotten very good unsolicited reviews from the people who took it; I think you'll like it too. 

Ciao! 

#676

I've been away. Have spent the past month in Oaxaca, studying Spanish, sketching, resting. Eating. Drinking in the colors, sounds and beauty of an advanced culture. 

 I know that's not the perception that our media gives but it's true. Mexico has many problems as we do in the U.S. but in the realm of human kindness they are most advanced. I am always humbled and learn so much from my visits there.

I think after 675 blog posts since April of 2006 (7 years!) I needed a break. It was nice to be quiet and away from Facebook and the computer (mostly). It's reassuring to know the roof wont fall in if I take a break. And the best part was being a student for a change. A student of the Spanish language at which I am a complete dunce. It helps me to know how it feels to be a beginner. It made me very shy.

And I am playing catch up now. I have a basket full of announcements that will be coming in the next few weeks. I'll be teaching less this year; I just passed another birthday and keep trying to retire but then this "just one more" keeps happening to me so I go on. 

Here are some recent journal pages. I didn't take many art supplies to Mexico so they're kind of heavy on writing.

I was really glad to get home to my studio again. Especially my paints which I missed.

I've unpacked and studied Spanish every day since my return but this is the first step in reconnecting with friends. Next comes answering e-mails. Oye, the list!

More faces. 

Joined Mary Ann in a little sketch party before I left. I've experienced a renewed interest in sketching of late. It was my primary creative outlet as a child; drawing people and making up stories in the solitude of my bedroom, lying on the cool cement floor of the Arizona desert. I plan to do more ...

A mi, me gusta dibujar.

Hasta luego!

What's On My Easel

Thinking today about Australia. My friend Ro Bruhn let me know this morning that she's reserved a room for the Melbourne Cold Wax Class that's scheduled for May 11-12th. Now I can finally make the announcement official; two cold wax class opportunities for my friends in Australia in May! We'll share painting as well as mealtimes, getting to know each other, and talking about art, dreams, all sorts of things we art people talk about when we get together. This is what I love about teaching. Meeting new art friends and sharing stories, laughing, getting to know each other. I love the cultural exchange and making new friends.

So first to Melbourne at the Beaumaris classroom and then on the following weekend I'll travel up to Jervis Bay to be with Tracy Verdugo and teach the cold wax class again to some wonderful new friends there. I'm so excited to make this trip, my first trip to a country that I've loved so much from afar. Here is the link to read about the class at Jervis Bay.

This is short because I'm heading out for a breather (may be away from the computer off and on). The painting above is cold wax. It's 20x20" in a 2" deep cradled panel and I'm calling it "Tumble". I'm loving working in cold wax so much; it really grows on you. I look forward to sharing it and myself with my friends in Australia. Please consider joining one of my classes there. I'd love to meet you. xo

Black Bean Dyeing Pt. 2

After the beans have soaked for 48 hours I carefully ladled the water off, careful not to stir up the pot too much. The proteins and debris that sink to the bottom are supposed to muddy the dye.

Then once I had dye and no beans in the stainless kettle I added the silk shirt, wet and direct from the mordant where it had soaked for a day and one half. I weighted the shirt down under the dye with a plate.

This is what the shirt looked like as it went into the dye bath. It's turned sort of gray with a few blushes or rose. 

And this is what it looked like last night after 48 hours in the dye bath. Very purpley. Pretty. I tossed all my white socks in there afterward. I like that color. 

So here it is hanging wet in the bathroom. I know it's going to dry a lot lighter.

And here it is this morning, dry and wonderful. I love the color. And yes, I know it's going to fade but I think even then I'll still like it. Indigo certainly fades; my levis that I wear all the time are going pale blue and eventually white on me but I love every color in between. This was FUN! Black beans aren't just for eating anymore.

Black Bean Dyeing

Welcome to my latest obsession. You'll have to come back toward the weekend for the results but at this point I'm off and running. Went to the store last night and bought 2 pounds of black beans and alum. I already had the cream of tarter. Covered the black beans with warm water and read a ton of online recipes. John said it would be a waste to use the black beans from the garden. We don't intend to eat these beans (although if I weren't using a compost bucket we technically could). These are art supply beans.

This is the silk shirt I'm going to dye. It was all the way into the bag for Goodwill before it hit me that I'd love it if it only weren't so bright white. It has silk covered buttons too so it should dye up nicely. It's really cute cinched in with a little belt.

 So this morning I put the shirt into a stainless steel pot with 1 tablespoon alum and 1 teaspoon cream of tarter and brought it to a gentle simmer, then turned off the heat and sat the pot next to the dye bucket on the clothes dryer to cool. Now I have to wait another 36 hours for the next step.

Being naturally curious I dipped the end of a paper towel into the bean juice to test the color. This is what came out. A fairly gray sage green. (I wrote "fairy" by mistake but I like the term for this color of green). Anyhoo, 10 minutes later the color had changed!!

It turned into this color. Definitely green. Now I've read that I can change the ph to make it lean more toward lavender but do I want to do that? (soda or vinegar to change the ph).

I loved stirring the simmering mordant pot with my big, wooden spoon, feeling like a good witch, connected to all the other dyers who've experimented farted around with natural materials in the past to get color.

Come back on the weekend and I'll show you the outcome. I'm bound to learn something.

Sere Beauty

You could say January is why I love June.

Except that yes, it has its moments.

Cozy indoor activities.

Occasional forays out into nature.

Warm slippers, hot tea, quiet hours for meditation and poetic musings.

A time for filling the well.

New things being imagined.

Old things over wintering.

Hope in all her colors.

Shelter and patience.

Being satisfied with what is.

Namaste.

Down Under

Long time readers will remember when I had to cancel a trip to Australia several years ago to have a serious operation. That happened right after 2 other operations on a detached retina. What a fun time that was. I was set to teach 3 filled classes in Melbourne and had to turn those duties over to another teacher (thank you dear Jan) and go to the hospital instead. Since then there's been a big hole in my life where Australia was supposed to be. A big regret.

No longer. Tracy Verdugo has graciously offered to sponsor me at her location on the gorgeous eastern coast in the town of Huskisson. This is bucket list stuff. I've been staring at maps. Researching history, birdlife, wildlife, flora and weather patterns. I'm in love with the dream I have about being down under. Practicing the accent I hope I'll pick up in 2 weeks. Only I sound more like a pirate.

I'm not a "cool" person who takes travel for granted. I get all sweaty and excited.

Anyway, before I get too silly, here is the page with all the information. I hope my artist friends in Australia will be interested in learning how to paint with cold wax. It is incredibly versatile. I'll teach you everything I know including how to make your own cold wax medium.

Come and see me while I'm there. Oh, please do. I've met so many of you online. I'd love to see you in person. One love.

Roots and Wings

Thank you for not abandoning me. Really, I think of you all the time. It's just that I've been doing interior work, cave painting so to speak and am in a deep place of learning and change.

Well, aren't we all. I'm back in the studio after wrapping up all the videos and lessons for the Cold Wax Online class. Now I have a few weeks to rest, paint, write and reflect before another travel time. We're having a mild winter in the Pacific Northwest; John cut a rose two nights ago to put in a vase in the window over the sink; that night we got our first killing frost. Peaceful weather soothes my nerves.

I've been doing charcoal drawings. Have started back up on the 100 paintings challenge. I'm only up to #29. I don't count anything in cold wax because it's a different process for me and not nearly as difficult as picking up a brush. My current weakness is making the values work, making the composition as I want it to be.

Working with line and personal marks, symbols, shapes that express my experience of being alive. Up until now I've used subject matter to do that but this is a leap in a different direction. I probably don't need to tell you how hard it is to get it right. This is a language that is challenging to learn (or I should say invent) - like Spanish for me. Some people pick up languages easily; I read about spies who learn Arabic in 6 weeks and I feel very stupid.

This is my 29th painting. 40x48" on canvas. Not as free as the drawings. I'm working on that. 

The title is "Roots and Wings" and comes from this quotation:  

My heart wants roots. My mind wants wings. I cannot bear their bickerings.— E. Y. Harburg 

So that's what I'm up to. Making each day fulfilling with lots of studio time, reading, eating good food (chard from the garden! it gets sweeter in the cold weather and makes the best smoothies!) and loving my good man who has also gotten sweeter in the winter of our lives. 

Words to myself: relax. Let it be easy, it isn't a race. Work each day. Make each day about getting pleasure out of the routine. Eat something good. Hug somebody. Go outside. Be part of a community. Whew. Okay, I think I've got it. Ciao for now.

Some Good Tidings

Most of you know that I've been teaching at EncaustiCamp for the past few years and that I'll be there again in July, this summer. Well, I got a wonderful e-mail this morning from one of my former students there. Her name is Debbie Supplitt and she is a middle school teacher. Which leads me to mention that EncaustiCamp is now accredited for continuing education. We've always attracted a number of qualified teachers and expect that will continue or increase now.

So I'll let Debbie tell the story in her own words. Here is the e-mail exactly as I received it. The photographs are all hers with a little cropping from me here and there.

 HI Judy,
Well, I just completed my third Master's degree, and wrote my entire thesis on:  Fused: A Study of Cultural Encaustic Art, History, and Educational Strategies for Middle School Art Students.  The study basically was introducing middle school students, grades seventh and eighth, to encaustics.  Sooooo, I secured funding to purchase the setup for an entire encaustics lab to support 28 students for three periods a day for nine days.  85 people, including me, doing encaustics.  Plus, the heat pallets, heat guns, (no torches that's a no-no in the schools) brushes, tins and medium were supported with a PTA grant and District funding of over $3,000.

The super cool thing about this project that the encaustics lab becomes mobile and travels from site to site allowing each middle school art teacher to introduce encasutic art to their students.  A total of over 1,400 middle school students could know all about encaustics before the end of the year, or next.  

We had a teacher inservice where we introduced basic encaustic skills.  They were a bit overwhelmed, so I think we need a few more sessions of fun to develop the skill base.

Okay so the one of the ubber cool things about this is that when I was in your class during EncaustiCamp One, you whip out the Fayum mummy protraits.  First thing I blurt out was...."These aren't Egyptians"  your response was "Yes they are".  Wowzers, how can this be?  So I started to research the Fayums, root source, blah blah blah and low and behold, remembering my conquest routes  of the ancient Greeks and Alexander, and of course who could forget that tall dark handsome Mark Anthony who screwed his way towards the conquest of Rome by a seduction of one beautiful Queen Cleopatra. Which was as we know it the Fall of the Egyptian Empire...awwww....now I connected the dots....flash light bulb goes on.  Thus the birth of my Thesis Study. All because of you, so Thank-you for once again, your inspiration.

Ubber cool thing #2...so I send Trish a few visuals of the product that the students created (attached) and she donates her extra kits and medium to our program....holy smokes.  We are in medium for the rest of the year.  So generous, so very cool. 
So this is a humungo Thank-you from the bottom of my heart...without you my Masters degree from Boston University would have taken a different path.
Creatively Yours,
Debbie Supplitt M.A.Art Ed./M.Ed. (impressive initials after my name....whatever!)

Gosh this made me happy today. Who could have guessed the ripples would ripple out in such a way. 

Art. It's my spiritual path.

And thank you for all those lights as I drive through the dark, rainy streets this time of year. It has always represented hope to me; that the light is always there in the darkness and that if we can just be patient renewal will come. Season's Greetings. Love your neighbor. xo