A Breather after Encaustic weekend

After a full and engaging Mothers Day weekend of facilitating two days of Encaustic painting with others, I have been taking a breather.  

What a wonderful way to self-mother...working in the studio with other enthusiastic women.  

Day one was basically and encaustic open studio, with only one participant new to the medium.  Although I am missing photos of two artists work, here are some images of encaustics created that day.

On Sunday we focused on creating Dreamscapes or Vision Encaustics, and what emerged were some powerful pieces.  I will add them later.  

Encaustic Workshop This Weekend!

Yesterday, after mixing up another batch of medium and finishing the organization of my studio, I did this encaustic painting, integrating several photo transfer images.  The house is a photo taken up at Howards creek ranch, I also added some sunflowers from my past gardens and a bird.  I think... I added a bit too much to this piece. 

It is in process, and I am not sure if I will scrape some of it down, add some texture and or more medium over it.  We shall see.   

 I am looking forward to a full weekend of working in encaustic with others.  

On Sunday we will be focusing on creating Encaustic Dreamscape Vision boards primarily.  I look forward to seeing what others will do.  I have been gathering images and ideas for what I plan to work on.  

I will be an exciting mothers day weekend.  I will post photos from the workshops, sometime next week, when I have the time.  Happy Mothers Day to all.  I am finally mothering myself on Mothers Day by indulging in non stop art making.  What can be better.  Ciao Caterina

Encaustic Incarnation #3 The Bird and the Butterfly

Today I went into the studio, planning on making some more medium.  But something else happened.  I had this piece that I was scraping away the wax from, which had 2 previous totally different lives and identities.  I decided to play with contrasting colors and see what happened. 

Using 2 different transfers  from old lithographs, and cheesecloth, the Bird and the Butterfly came to visit, or rather live.  I am getting simpler in my work, after having been very textured and elaborate in my earlier encaustic work.  This piece highlights the luminosity of the colors, which is one of the things I love, love love about encaustic paint.  The cheese cloth dipped and saturated in encaustic medium, and painted over  with encaustic paint, does something incredible to the piece.  

It appears I am onto a new direction once again, after falling in love with blending colors and photo transfer I am now feeling braver about adding texture.  What a satisfying day. 

Getting Ready Gets me WoRkInG !!! again....

As I begin to prepare for two encaustic workshops I am facilitating next weekend, I primed my creative pump a bit and did a new piece that I love.  It seems that gathering my materials, organizing my supplies, cleaning the space and preparing for others to come join me, allows connections to happen and all of a sudden things fall into place and I am working.  Hallelulia, is that the key, creating and inviting an resource filled environment for others, creates it for myself, and I become motivated.  

I have always been drawn to prayer flags, as and image and a metaphor. I love the concept of prayers and dreams symbolically represented in form, and then being dissolved and transmitted through the wind.   Over the years I have made many prayer flags and led my students in many prayer flag experiences.   I had a copy of a photo graph of prayer flags high in the mountains of nepal....and made a zerox copy of it, waiting for inspiration.

After creating and encaustic background, I transfered the image and immersed some cheescloth in encaustic medium., fused it all together and added encaustic paint to the cheesecloth.   That is the physical process, but the outcome some how really excites me and touches me deeply.   So I am sharing the image here.  It feels like an ephipany, somehow.  

Today I went to western Farms and bought more beeswax and I am so excited about getting ready.   

Some Photos from Encaustic Open Studio Day

Last Saturday I had an open Encaustic Studio Day at my studio.  There were four of us and the day was spent intensely focused on working with our individual processes.  I didn't get many photos, I was too immersed in my own process, but thought I would post what I have.

  some delicious colors of R&F paints....
A work in progress....I love the actual metal gate on the sides of the image.
Cutting, sorting, and playing with possibilities.....
Fusing, again and again of course.....




Once again, I cleaned and put aside my encaustic supplies.  This time I have to make some new medium before I can begin again, but I've 2 pounds of beeswax ready to go, so perhaps this weekend.  I love to do this work.  I feel blessed to have people come to my studio to work and learn this process with me, as well as the infinite possibilities that open in my mind when I am working.  The last two encaustic are ones I did this weekend.  My maternal great grandparents...and a Soaring bird.   

Setting up the Studio again- getting ready for Saturday

Living the Butterfly Woman archetype.

 " Into The Blu" 

It's raining today, a perfect day for going into my studio and setting up for the Encaustic Open Studio day I am hosting /facilitating this Saturday.   

We definitely need the rain here in Northern CA., as we dance with a major drought...however, the rain does have a tendency to turn me inward, something I have been rather obsessive about  lately, as I try to put together the loose ends of my life.  
I hate to say this, but I havn't cranked up the hot plates since my last Encaustic weekend over a month ago.  I know part of the reason is because I have had  to move around the encaustic set up for my women's group and the mandala workshop, cleaning wax off the tables, and creating a different atmosphere/ enviornment for each class....but
But it is also a lethargy that has taken hold since I am not working a regular job anymore.  It's not to say that I haven't done any art, I have completed a mandala, and worked in one of my altered visual journals.  But undivided studio time with my encaustic paints, which is where I really loose myself and get into a flow, just hasn't happened.  I flit like a butterfly.

Yes,  its all this putting it away and bringing it out that shifts my attention. 

 I am looking forward to getting back into my work with wax again.  It is also important to honor that I am going through a " spiral" process right now, and to not devalue it, but enjoy the flitting, and truely indulge the butterfly in me.  Perhaps I am the Butterfly Woman.

Calla Lilly means- Magnificent Beauty

It is truly spring and the air is filled with delightful freshness as well as pollen.  I am in a sense of pure delight over the beauty all around me.  I have been working on my Spring Mandala and am getting closer to completion.

This is close to the beginning when I first began to add color

I love to slow down and draw, one step after the other, letting the prismacolor pencil slow me down move me into a synchronization with my breathing.  This one is closer to completion, with a bit of white added to the final circle of the mandala.  I am not sure if there is more to come, wether I will leave the black in the inner ring or not, but it is lovely as it is.  I just love Calla Lillies, so common, so simple yet so elegantly beautiful.  If I do more to this mandala, I will post it later, now it is what it is.  I notice how pared down my drawing are becoming, perhaps it is because my life is simpler now, less running around, fewer big daily commitments.  I love it.  Life is good and it is spring once again.