work in progress

I started these a week ago, and need to finish them asap! Just not really sure where I want to go with them.  They are collages with encaustic paints and decorative paper on  6" square cradled hardboard.

Collage book Giveaway

Check out the giveaway at Kristen's Retro Cafe blog.

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.

Art Journaling

This is the first page from an art journal I began this past winter. I have to give a nod to Kelly Kilmer for getting me motivated to start (once again!). She has a daily art journal/collage/painting/prompt offered on her website A Prompt a Day.

I was more interested in getting some color and collage into a book and let the journaling come later. So I fashioned my own signatures and sewed them into a cover of a discarded hardback book. This first page is layered with lots o f drybrush acrylic paint, collage from my stash, including the removable holy card which is from my grandfather's funeral nearly 40 years ago. I like leaving plenty of space to actually write in journals, (rather than filling them up with collage). This page also includes rub on letters, colored pencil, paper scraps, German scrap wings, silver metallic and black pens.

Besides this page, I spent some time today scanning pages that I've painted so that I have "before" and "after" pics of my pages. Here's another spread before journaling. Layers of dry brushed acrylics, collaged tags, papers, and stickers. I think these fit in nicely with the concept of layering, especially the paint, that we are exploring in Techniques Sunday with the mmartfriends yahoo group.

Two more encaustics in the series

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.

I am Honored

Award Winners were nnounced for "I am Woman" Show on August 15, 2008 at The Next Picture Show Gallery in Dixon, IL

... and I was thrilled and surprised for my framed collage "Renewal" to be chosen for the third place award!

An artist from the Quad Cities, Raphael Iaccarino, judged the show. He is an internationally known artist whose vivid watercolors are inspired by the Costa Rican rain forests and jungles. Iaccarino prefaced the announcements with a comment that he was looking for images that compelled him to look, look again, and return to look yet again. He said that five of the six pieces had an air of mystery about them.

Iaccarino gave each of the award winners a written comment, which I found very encouraging. The comment on "Renewal" was, " Just when you know, it's time to let go."