And Another Encaustic- Quan Yin in the Garden

Here is another encaustic mixed media painting that I recently brought home.    Quan Yin in the Garden is 5"x7" on hardboard.

I love to look at  her she is so serene.  I have incorporated stones and fabric, gold leaf and lot of hand carving into this mixed media encaustic painting  

I posted this piece in my etsy store.  I have so many encaustic paintings that I have done over the years, that I am hoping to move them out into the world, to justify creating new pieces.  

Encaustic listed on EBAY---trying it again

I brought home some encaustic paintings from Art and All That Jazz last week, after switching them with some newer work.  I love this little piece, which I call the Flowering Sea.  It reminds me of all those magical, wonder-filled  flowers that you see in Maui, floating on the sea.  I love the mysterious enchantment of them, and this encaustic mixed media painting does honor to them.

I decided to post it on ebay instead of my etsy site 

to see if perhaps another online venue for selling my art would bring results.   

This textural encaustic painting is 5"x7" on hardboard and looks enchanting framed.  The experiment continues for a week, take a look if you want.   Here is the link:  The Flowering Sea.

Today I am having another meeting of the Medicine Art Group, so  I am off to get ready.  

Art Journaling - Mixed Media and Gathering with Others....

On Friday I facilitated and Art Gathering with a group of my women friends, who I used to work with at Santa Rosa Junior College.  

After teaching there for over 25 years, alongside many of these friend/co-workers, it was like playing with family.  

It saddened me to hear how everyone who still works there is still feeling the effects of the budget crisis and the worries about if they will have a job or not in the fall.  I feel like I was part of the first wave of layoffs...and am grateful to feel on the other side of the fear, worry and tension that comes with the possibility of layoff.  The worst thing is the absolute demolishing of the cutting edge/deeply humanist department that I worked in for so long.

However...the art we did...mixed media exploration, was healing, joyful and a soothing balm to everyone.  I love how creative engagement shifts energy and acts as a healing medicine and joyful play.   It was a deeply satisfying day of artmaking, friendship and food.   

It brings me back to my new idea of creating Art Gatherings for existing groups of women, to bring life, joy and creative play into peoples lives.    

I have been working on developing pages for another mixed media Art JOurnal.  I am combining collage, and focused free write as well as doodling into it.  

This process is bringing together many of the elements that I taught in my Creative Process class for all those years.  Again thinking perhaps to offer this as a ongoing class in the fall.  Who knows.  These are some photos from this new Journal I am working on.   

The final collage is a mixed media piece that I continue to work on, adding text and more collage imagery.  I love playing, adding, reframing and transforming art that I did earlier.  

This Goddess of the Sweet LIfe, is a copy of an earlier collage, that I continue to play with.  All is grist for the mill.

Mandala Workshop coming up....gearing up

As we approach the Summer Solstice, Patricia and I are gearing up for our next Illuminated Mandala Retreat Day.  We will be focusing on the 4 elements in this mandala workshops, as well as honoring the change in the Seasons and the onset of the summer.  

The following images show the progression of one of my mandalas, to give a sense of the evolving process of this wonderful way of creating mandalas.  We are facilitators of Judith Cornell's Mandala Process, and incorporate her powerful healing technique with our own style and person centered focus for creating art.  

This workshop will be held at an interesting and colorful art studio in Healdsburg called the Cosmic Cowgirls Studio.   I love that metaphor, having your feet on the ground and your spirit in the sky.  The studio space is bright, colorful and visually entrancing, filled with a very positive healing energy.  We are excited over the prospect of spending the day there drawing healing mandala's with others.  

We have been on the search for the perfect retreat space for our workshops.  Since we stopped using Mountain Home Ranch we have been trying out a variety of new spaces for our day long retreats.  So we are anticipating a unique experience and lovely day at this studio a few blocks from the Plaza in Healdsburg, California, the heart of the wine country by the way.

If you have ever considered doing this workshop, this is the perfect time.  Come join us in Healdsburg on June 21st.  Please check out our Creative Arts Studio website for more information.  This process is a wonderful way to set intentions for a new cycle, place attention on the healing energies of the mandala, as well as learn how to draw in a unique and easy way in a supportive and safe setting.  Hope some of you can make it!!

Encaustic Open Studio Monday.....

On Monday morning, three women who have been coming regularly to my studio for encaustic classes, joined me in an open studio morning.  After a weekend of hot hot weather here in Northern California, it was a lovely welcome relief to have a cool morning.  The natural air conditioning of the great mother Pacific, brought us relief.  Perfect for working in encaustic.  

I am posting the work that emerged that a.m. 

This piece is one that I worked on with a background I have been struggling with for awhile, finally coming together.  Cheese cloth, collage, photo transfer and sennileir oil pastels over the encaustic.  The image is a from a photograph that I took in Sicily of an altar in the side of one of my relatives houses.     I love it.  It is small but strong.  

Liz continues to work on her family photos in the piece...

with a map of Texas collaged into the encaustic.

This is one of Paula's dragon fly encaustics....

sure looks like a fairy doesn't it.

 I love the colors. 

Another one of Paula's  so rich with beeswax...yumm.

             Peace..

Honey bee was done by   Randy who is a beekeeper. 

The only person who came her is new to the medium... this was her first try at encaustic, 

she is a natural.

Another encaustic by Randy.

I drew with oil pastels on cradled clayboard for this piece, and applied encaustic medium very thickly over it. I love the colors.. This piece however, does not exist anymore. I kept adding colors and working it and it now is something else.  It has become the first image on this post.  NOt sure it is complete either...but I have lost the original....we shall see where the Dream goes.  

A Vision of Possibility- Intentional Encaustic

Dreams are like the paints of a great artist.  

Your dreams are your paints, 

the world is your canvas.

Believing is the brush that converts your dreams

 into a Masterpiece of Reality.

Encaustic Dreamscapes

The Encaustic Dreamscape day was very intriguing, everyone not only got totally into the process of working in encaustic, but also gained insight and joy from the pieces they created.  As is the case with all art making, the art gave us information  that was revealing, sometimes unexpected and filled with hope.

I enjoyed incorporating guided imagery, free writing and intention setting into the encaustic experience.  I am sure I will do this again in the future.

Here are some photos from the class.

This is my dreamscape, incorporating photo transfer, collage and oil pastels drawn directly onto the substrate board.  It is in process, but made me aware of where my personal focus for change is meant to be.

Creating a new home...

Here is Patti sharing her dreamscape piece

Buddha

Ani's icon.....

Finding, embracing and loving the authentic self

Paula sharing the story behind her piece 

The Portal

Here is Victoria sharing about her Dreamscape Portal....

....in process.....

Patti's vision board....to help manifest the perfect new home....in process

....The beginning place for Paula's Dreamscape

and   Fusing, of course......