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

More Photos from Weekend Encaustic Workshop

Here are more photos from the Encaustic Weekend Workshop.   

 Here's are more photos of the encaustics.....

Cheesecloth and voile fabric dipped in beeswax has  amazing three dimensional possibilities
                                  This is a photo transfer piece that I did.
This little encaustic was a sample piece I did incorporating collage, lace and metallic string dipped in beeswax and some scraffito texture..
Another piece incorporating the magic of voile fabric ( tutu material) and cheesecloth
Photo transfer is the basis of this piece with alot of carving done into the wax. 

Another photo transfer piece done from a zerox of an original drawing by Patricia Waters


Mystery abounds in this piece with  lots of cheese cloth dipped in medium.


Heres Liz sharing her process and the story behind this mixed media encaustic painting.





And last but not least, this one has much dimension created by flowers dipped in medium, but it doesn't quite show in the photo.  There were quite a few more pieces that the group members did that I didn't photograph, most of these were done on the first day. I was so into the process on the second day that taking pictures slipped my mind.    I am looking forward to getting back into the studio myself and completeing some pieces I began...but this week is all about taxes and cleaning up my studio for my Friday Medicine Art Group.  I will post more of my work in a later post.  Whew...

Encaustic-ly Speaking - Pushing the limits of my creative process.

i have been struggling with another encaustic ...which started out with high hopes and has shifted quite a but through the process.  Here is the background I began with....planning on transferring an image of a suspension bridge that I photographed this summer up at Howards Creek Ranch .  A magical place I love to stay at,  up on the Mendocino coast, in Westport.  

It reminds me of a pregnant spirit of some sort.

Here is the photograph I tried to transfer.

The resulting transfer reminds me of a tower, golden, and lighted, but its wasn't the image I was working toward. I realized there was too much dark, not enough contrasting light, and I had to presss and scrape and still didn't get an image that in any way resembled the bridge or what it was I was trying to convey. I also realized my background wasn't light enough....so ...

So I decided in the process of scraping off the ink transfer with a bone folder, to keep playing, and I transferred a tree and a bird over it, began scraping into the dark transfer grasses and the textured became as important as the image.   This is where I am so far, taking it into a new direction.  I am liking it, and plan to paint more encaustic into it, and rub some inks into the scratching and see where it goes... This is what I have been up to, following  my process and seeing if I can take this somewhere new.  Learning all the while. 

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..