September 2011
12 posts
A Multipurpose Life
The studio is doing double duty this week….and I’m very proud! The rescue group I’m working with, Friends of Retrievers Rescue Inc, is having a HUGE yard sale and my studio is hosting the event. We’ll be set up on Friday and Saturday from 7am - 2pm along Oakwood Avenue and my place has been the collection point for donations. Actually, this photo is a week old —...
Oops, I did it again
Yep, I did it again. I’ve fallen in the animal rescue hole and I can’t get out :) Last week I transported Joanie, the golden to her foster home. Then I picked up Snow and two pups at Athens Dog Pound and transported to a vet so they could get on their way to foster care.
Meanwhile, I accepted a Yorkie as a foster, took him to the vet, and met an adopter from Georgia yesterday. ...
Big Sky
This is the idea. This is the third Oakwood Power Lines piece - and the largest encaustic I’ve done so far. This one will be 12” x 16”. It may not sound large but it’s a lot of wax to control with a tiny single edge blade!
Mixing blues….
and starting my sky with a heated palette knife.
Oakwood Power Lines Two
I’m moving on tomorrow to my third power lines piece. I’m planning a larger vertical encaustic, 18” x 12”. That isn’t exactly large but LARGER. I haven’t been in a hurry to increase the size of my pieces. After working large in watercolor for so long, I’m getting a kick out of my small caseins and encaustics.
10 tags
Stringing Line
I hope to finish this piece today. It’s the second Oakwood Power Lines encaustic — I have more lines to “install”. Wish me luck - this piece is getting touchy. The tricky part has proven to be not disturbing the sky as I scrape back with the blade. I didn’t expect it because I have a very generous layer of wax for the sky but I used pure white in the...
12 tags
Would You Be Mine? Could You Be Mine? Won't You...
The view out my studio windows isn’t beautiful - on one side is a sheetmetal fabrication business and on the other side is a bail bondsman. Across the street is an attorney’s office in a very modest little house and behind me is a tiny house where a couple lived with their FIVE white pit bulls until they were “invited” to leave.
I keep my doors locked and most of the...
5 tags
The Wrong Tool Challenge
It’s important to make things as difficult as possible. Take a long time to figure things out and be unprepared — words to live by! I’m pretty sure they sell electric tools to do what I want but that would be cheating. I’m pretty sure that’s cheating.
I planned this simple piece that depends heavily on a nice graded sky. Without an interesting sky, there...
15 tags
Hard to Say Goodbye
It’s harder for some artists than others - saying goodbye to a painting. I don’t think it means one artist cares about their work more than another, although there are artists who crank out the same image repeatedly until it is robotic. I won’t wade into those murky waters though.
In my experience, the difference is what I’m connecting to — the end product of my...
The Answer at Pearl
I’m asked quite often why I’m working so hard to learn encaustic painting. On a hot day when it isn’t going well, I tend to wonder myself. I could be working effortlessly in watercolor and rather comfortably in casein but instead, I’m struggling with a third medium.
Today I was reminded of my reason, or at least one of them. While visiting New York’s Chinatown...
September in Manhattan
When I’m in New York, this is what I see. We’re here for a couple of days and the walking weather is perfect. Believe me, we’ve walked miles in this city in ALL kinds of weather — July heat and thigh high snow.
New York always sends me home with renewed energy to make my art. Seeing so many talented, focused people could be intimidating but I decided a long time ago...
18 tags
Why Blog?
Blogs, Twitter, Facebook – why would an artist spend time doing these things? That time could be spent creating, so does it make sense? Some artists are successful selling their paintings and their services on the internet, so their objectives are clear. I need to sell work too, of course, but I have other ideas about what I want to accomplish.
First of all, I think it’s important to be...
6 tags
Forty four
I’m awful with numbers - they mean nothing to me. I have to tally my checkbook register five times to get the same balance. I can’t remember a phone number that I’ve used daily for ten years. And really, I hate to admit it but I get anxious when count out change at a cash register.
But today, I caught myself counting my strokes with a single edge razor blade as I smoothed...