For one reason or another, and likely because of a great many reasons and life ‘stuff’, I haven’t been up to paint in my studio since the last mad flurry before my show back in March! I have been photographing and I suppose that this has kept me stimulated enough creatively so that I haven’t felt an overwhelming need to be painting…but I do miss it…
I love oil paints for their richness and the way they blend…but with the way that I paint…using tons of paint and slathering it on thick, with lots of texture…it takes years for my oil paintings to fully cure…that was why I switched to using acrylics…and I love the different acrylic mediums and the ease of clean-up and all…but they aren’t oils…they just don’t have the same luminosity and richness…encaustic painting combines oil pigments with molten beeswax…the depth and sheen of this amalgamation is simply amazing…plus this medium has endless possibilities…you can build it up with many layers, carve into it to reveal the layers below, add elements to it creating a collage, create a layered mass of it and then carve away at parts of that…artist Laura Moriarty does some pretty wild things with encaustics…this video shows her working on one of her sculptural paintings…
Another encaustic artist that I like is Susan Wallis…
Ever since that encaustic workshop, I have wanted to explore this medium further…and our visit to Su Sheedy’s studio in Kingston back in April woke that urge up again…
While at Su’s studio, she showed me her tools and materials…one main tool was a blow torch…with a self-igniting switch…how cool is that?...
It has already been 2 months since we visited Su’s studio…but the idea of doing some encaustics hasn’t been far from my thoughts…and a couple of days ago, I finally used up some of my Canadian Tire funny money and bought myself this…
4 comments:
Oh how much fun is that! Whoda thought a blowtorch could be so exciting. Now I'm not sure what it means that it is self igniting but anything that makes the process easier.
It's great to see you back. I love your description of the different forms of painting. Encaustic painting does sound right up your alley.
Oh how neat! I've not done encaustic painting the closest has been wax crayons shaved and ironed on to paper to make weird abstract shapes, nothing too neat about that--more like kindergarten crafting. I too loved your description of the different paints and their attributes. :) cheers! Stephanie (CED)
IrishGirl...it means I just squeeze the trigger and the thing lights!...no turning on the gas and holding a sparker to it...just squeeze and go!
Thank you both for commenting...enough of this dry spell...or not painting spell...I can't wait to get going with melting beeswax and playing with great globs of colours!
You go, Girl ... just don't set fire to all of Ian's work! But do set yourself on fire. It's time!
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