News
The latest adventures in my art journey..14th April 2007 I attended a workshop with an up and coming local artist Meg Foster. She does fabulous work in encaustic on canvas and board. it was a great experience, using large hotplates to melt the pigmented beeswax and paint onto board. We covered how to use other media within the work, such as applying acrylics, scratching back to reveal lower layers and working oilsticks into the scratched areas. It was very inspiring and needless to say I'm now saving for some basic encaustic tools, mainly the hotplate and heatgun, and a selection of waxes. They can be expensive, a colour I simply loved was Manganese blue, but expensive at £28 for a small block. I'm determined to do this, it's so much in line with the way I work so I'll add more news once I have them and some artworks to the site.
well - as usual the proceeds of latest sales has gone on to more art materials. I bought my own encaustics in May and have added to them with later sales. I've bee working on a variety of styles from pure figurative - as in Maria - to floral - Pansies, and semi abstract with Fairyland Magic 1 and 2. Its great fun, very hot and I've had a few nice burns...but amazing effects to be had, and the beauty for me is that you never quite know whats going to happen, just melt a bit too long, scrape a bit too deep and the whole work changes. I work with those changes though, as always I feel the painting has a bit of life force of its own and thats what makes it so interesting to create and ( i hope..) to view.
Just treated myself to some brushes from excellent brush site Rosemary & co, easy to order and quick efficient service. Acrylics are hard on brushes - or at least the way I use them... and so after a while its not possible to get a nice sharp line with them. I never throw old brushes away though - but take the scissors to them and customise for future use. I hate waste.
april 2008 I am doing a demo for a local ladies club , seemd a good idea when i was asked last autumn, now I have the usual butterflies... i wonder why i put myself through this and yet to encourage someone else to start enjoying art is very satisfying and thats my main reason.