On going work- Inspiration - What do you think?

I continually return to pieces I have worked on as a matter of course.  A painting, collage, mandala or encaustic sits around my studio for a while and then suddenly calls to me for the next step.  I posted this painting a while ago as part of a way I have been playfully using up paints, that my clients leave on their palettes after a session or a group.

Here is the original painting that I posted a  while back.

 I have now taken it into another direction, adding some collage imagery, (birds which is a continuing motif and theme in my art) as well as wording.   The colors have changed somewhat and it has become less subtle.  What do you think?

 I

INSPIRE   12"X12" on canvas                         

For some reason the colors are different than the original in this photo.  The blues are still more subtle and the bottom is actually purple.  I will retake the photo in different light and post it again.
This painting Inspire is now posted in my etsy store Soul Arte Eclectica.  

So my question is a request for feedback, should I have left it alone or does this work as an inspiration piece.  Thanks in advance.

INSPIRE: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative 
To  create (a feeling, esp. a positive one) in a person

Soaring Bird Encaustic- Bird theme continues

Birds are a continuing archetypal  theme, or image in much of my art.  As a child, the only pet I could have, in our 3 floor apartment in Chicago was a parakeet.  I had many parakeets over the years, and developed my love and relationship to flying things from those early, tender and companionable memories.  

Here is an encaustic painting I did of a Soaring Bird, which is available for purchase in my etsy store.

Encaustic painting

10"x10" on cradled hardboard

“For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.”

D.H. Lawrence

Revisting Some of my Encaustic's-La Finestra Primavera

Before I had my surgery, coincidentally, I brought home many of my encaustic paintings that have been hanging at Art and All That Jazz in Healdsburg.  Due to the economy, the owner was revamping and changing the focus of her gallery.  My work has been there, selling and being seen, for about 5 years.

La Finestra Primavera

The springtime Window

11"x14" on cradled hardboard

Soul Arte Eclectica

Now that I am getting better, I have the time to unpack these pieces and decide what their next step in the world will be.  Shaun McNiff, a wonderful studio based art therapist, believes that images are like angels and that they have a life of their own, and stories to tell.  That has always resonated with me, and I have felt that my art has work to do in the world and it is my job to get them out there.  Some of these pieces are being hung all around my house and studio, and others left stored.  So in that light I have decided to show them here, prior to posting them on my etsy store....while I open to another new venue here in Sonoma County, where they can be seen.  

I love the texture in this piece.  It is an homage to Italy and all things Italian.  The archway reminding me of the narrow streets in Italia, the flowers under the window box...and birds...I have em bedded an antique map into the beeswax on the lower left which is decipherable  among all the colors.

I will continue revisting my early encaustics over time.  This painting is available for sale at my store at.  

SoulArteEclectica

Please go visit them at my etsy store, for another viewing.  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. 

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.   

Encaustic Process- Hummingbird Tree evolution

I have continued to do my tree series using photo transfers of tree's I have been photographing around Sonoma County.  This first attempt of a Eucalyptus tree seemed to have a far to dark and distracting background...although interesting in itself.  

so I decided to change the background to a lighter color...But once done, it didn't work and looked rather pasted together.   

So I wound up scratching the photo transfer off of the wax and using another tree image transfer.  I am learning learning learning...
Although the blue is more muted in this final piece, I like its dreamlike qualities.  I added the hummingbird and more foilage around the base of the tree.  

This is a new way of working for me with the encaustic medium.  The finish on these are smooth and glossy. I am having fun.  I am not sure where I will go next with this process, but I am appreciating the inclusion of these photo transfers as a beginning place as well as playing with the heat gun...fusing and blending the hot wax.   later I will post the entire series..

Summer Time Collages.....

I love to play with older works, reworking them, adding, changing, turning them into new stories.  That is the beauty and intrigue of collage to  me.  It is an opportunity to recreate, re-envision, reframe the picture and look at it differently.  

School has ended and I am reworking some collages as I get ready for the Art @ the Source Open Studio Tour next weekend...  I am excited by having free time, and overwhelmed by what I need to do to get ready for the Open Studios.  Yet, creating art and letting it go out into the world is really what it is all about for me.