Encaustic on ceramic tiles

Indigo, Enso 2, Enso 3, Marble, Enso

These encaustic paintings are among a group that will be for sale at TheArtery in the Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport, IA.  The four in the black stands are painted on ceramic tile and the one in the back is on cradled wood.

Encaustic Art evokes memories

"Nougat" detail

This morning I played around with scraping back a wax surface to random blobs of colored wax I'd sprinkled across the surface.  As I was scraping it reminded me of one of my favorite childhood candies, Brach's Jelly Nougats.

The candy I remember

This experimentation came about because yesterday I bought Lissa Rankin's book Encaustic Art and I am so pleased that I did!  Somehow I had the impression it was simply a collection of interviews and artwork, but, of course, it is so much more.

Venus Envy is almost here

This past Saturday I took the four encaustic pieces shown in the post below to the Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport.  I was so fortunate to find Helen Boyd and Jacki Olson working in their studio, so I stopped in for a chat and to admire their work.  They are two gracious and generous artists with wonderful work hanging .  Jacki was using an iron to smooth out the wax on paper on cradled board abstract.  Helen was deftly using a heat gun to get a very shiny and smooth surface on her piece.  They were both encouraging when viewing my four small pieces.  It was great to be able to share ideas among us.

I also visited sculptor Paul Algueseva in his new studio in Moline.  He has many irons in the fire (sorry, I couldn't help that!).  I'll look for his website later.
Gotta run - time for work!

Venus Envy - Quad Cities 2010

Several of my encaustic pieces have been juried into the Venus Envy -Quad Cities 2010 show.

Sixty visual artists will be showcased along with musical performances, dance, installation performances and interactive workshops on Saturday, May 1st, from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. at the Bucktown Center for the Arts in downtown Davenport, Iowa .   


The exhibit runs through May 28 during Bucktown's normal hours of operation, Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Pieces I've worked on lately

Here are a few of the acrylic and encaustic pieces I've worked on lately.  (Thanks, Wally and Barb for the photos!)

Bohemian Memory was done in the summer of 2009 and hung bottom-side up for quite awhile until I kept seeing Abraham Lincoln peering back at me!  So I flipped it over and liked it better this way.  It's 24" x 36" acrylic textured with molding paste and stencils and some paper collage.


Breathe and Live Abundantly were both done in January 2010.  They're highly textured acrylics with paper collage.  They were done for fun.

The last one of this group is Delight, an encaustic collage I worked on in the summer of 2009.  I changed my color palette from the darker tones to a pastel palette.  R&F oil paint sticks were added to the encaustic medium to achieve this lighter look.  I collaged a vintage photo, some sticks from a bush in the yard, pieces of map and dictionary pages.  It's a 10" x 8" piece that I need to find the right frame for it.  I'm thinking weathered white wood.

Two more encaustics in the series

Shawna Moore -Encaustic Painter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7fkIKcET14

This is one of the most inspiring videos I've watched. Shawna works on a large painting - combined with a great background song - just mesmerizing!

Beeswax collage

These are my first two forays into encaustic art. I love the smell of melted beeswax - it seems to bring me back to my childhood when i spent time watching my dad process honey from the several hives we had in the yard.

This 8" x 8" collage was created on cradled gessoboard, decorative napkins, wrapping paper, and stickers. I used Shiva oil paint sticks to add additional color.

The button collage is created on 5" square cradled gessoboard. The background is tinted with alcohol inks rubbed into the cooled wax. The vintage buttons are from my collection.