I almost forgot to share! Encaustic Art Exchange

 I almost forgot to share...Around the Holidays I participated in an Encaustic Art Exchange, with members of the BEESWAXTEAM on Etsy.  We were to create and send a 6"x6" encaustic to the artist whose name we were sent.

Here I am with  Cloud Study #3 by Beth Billey of Tangled Sky Studio in Mill Valley, Ca.  She is a  neighbor geographically, because I live in Santa Rosa about 48 miles north on 101. 

 I was delighted to receive her encaustic as my secret bee exchange.  My immediate thought was how different she works from me.  I love this  piece, its subtle earthy colors, opaque yet alluringly transparent, as well as the way the clouds are collaged text, with small scratched in dots defining them. It  almost looks like a face in a dreamy sky.  

She included a   moo card in the package and it had  another one of her encaustic images on it.  It made me want to explore her website and blog and look at more of her work.  I then went an ordered some moo cards of my own to send off with my art.  They came back quickly and are wonderful

I am always struck with how there are so many ways to communicate uniquely and expressively in encaustic.  I continue to refall in love with this medium.    All and all it was a great process, and part of the process was to photograph ourselves with the piece and share....and I almost forgot...ALMOST.

I put away all my encaustic supplies which are usually always out, for the Mandala retreat day, now I need to motivate myself to set it all up again.  But then again, I am still working on my mandala, another altered journal and starting a project of transferring my mandalas to black and white line drawings, with the intention of creating a mandala coloring book....so I've many processes to distract me from cranking up the wax for a while.  Life is Good!.

So far, so good...more to come, maybe..

Here is my encaustic challenge piece with a bit more detail, some collage elements and lots more copper.  It is begining to get there...maybe it is done, or maybe not.  But the articulation of the archway is a bit more honoring of the playful and happy young women they were at that time in their lives.  I will post a more completed version when its done, but I must sit with it a bit and  see what calls to me...and what the piece seems to be asking of me.  I really enjoyed working with the nylon and pattern piece.  Nylons actually are a very good sculptural element for encautic...who would have guessed.  

Encaustic Challenge Process

Where to begin....what to do?  Here is what happened

As part of the etsy encaustic artist "Beeswaxteam Challenge"  I received a panties pattern and a nylon stocking in the mail from another encaustic artist on etsy.  The challenge and it was one to start with, was to create an encaustic painting incorporating any part of the items received.

At first I really had no idea where to go with these seemingly random but connected items.
Then I started going through some vintage family photos thinking something might click and I came across several of mother as a young woman with her friends.  I vacillated between two photos then decided I like this one of my mom and my "aunt Margie"  under an arbor.  These two were life long friends. 
The other image I considered was one of my mom and her friends actually in their panties outside probably on vacation somewhere.  I saturated the cradled hardboard with encaustic medium and dipped the nylon in it as well.  The nylon began to form a sculptural frame for the image...hmmm,
I began to apply some transparent colors of encaustic paint....ie R&F paints very diluted with encaustic medium.
I wanted the words from the pattern piece to show through.  However I wasn't really enthralled by the colors at this point.

The center where I was planning on tranfering a copy of one of the photos was too lumpy over the pattern so I scraped it down to the medium.
Placing the copy onto the board I burnished and then peeled away the layer rubbing it with water.
Here is Addie and Marguerite peering through...I love the mystery of photo transfer.

From this point on I kept adding color and playing with possiblities
Hmmm, not sure about the gold rickrack but it needs something...
Its a bit dull and needs more contrast and something more done to it
Taking it another step with more color and starting to carve into the wax a bit here and there.
Then I decided to darken the blue a bit...This is where I left it after the first day of working on it. One thing is for sure, this challenge has challenged and inspired me.  It has been a while since I heated up my hot plates and worked at it again, and this really got me engaged and excited.  More to come..