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.   

More FLOWERING MANDALA'S

I am posting the rest of the photos that I took at the Mandala Workshop.

I love watching as they evolve into such beautiful pieces of art.

Each so unique and expressive of the artist's flowering essence.

I am hoping every one sends me the completed images so I can post them here 

for the world 

to view.

The process of creating them was a meditation and a joy for each person.

The practice of creating mandala's helps us to find our center in a graphic way.

 Creating mandalas is like creating a map that allows us to orient ourselves to our 

own inner balance. 

Here we are working from the flowers in my studio. What a lovely day it was.

And so for me it is time to move onward, and complete the mandala I began that day.  I will post its progress at a later time.   





Our next Mandala Retreat Day will be on Saturday June 20th, on the Summer Solstice.  Our focus will be the Four Elements.  Get in touch if you are interested in joining me and Patricia in this wonderful meditative and healing art practice.  

Mandalas- From Spring Blossoming Retreat Day- in the begining

The Spring Mandala Retreat Day was a wonderful, meditative, and nurturing experience.

I am posting photos from the morning part of the workshop, so people can see the evolution of the mandalas that people created. Here the mandalas are all hung on the studio wall, so we could stand back and look at them from a distance.

In the begining........

The second day of spring, was a rainy day in Northern California, perfect for a long idyllic day of drawing, slow and meditative mandalas.  After spending part of the morning doing smaller mandalas on black paper, we began our larger pieces.

The studio was filled with flowers, which were both inspiration and visual prompts for our blossoming mandalas.  I am always amazed at the uniqueness of each person's expression.

We applied the metaphor of blossoming to our lives as well, with our mandalas being external expression of the seeds of personal transformation that were being set and opened in the spring.

Several people used the Calla Lilly as their jumping off point.  

I took many photos of the evolution of the mandalas.  I will post more of them later.  Since very few of the 8 participants finished their mandala's on Saturday, they plan on sending the images to us later.  I will hopefully post them all together at a later date.

Getting Ready for Saturdays Mandala Workshop

Today we are organizing and rearranging the studio to get ready for the Illuminated Mandala Workshop that we are doing on Saturday.  In honor of the Spring Equinox, we are focusing on flowers and the experience of blossoming and flowering into our fullness of experience.  

So I am posting images of both flower mandalas and flowers that I have drawn.  

Each of these Illuminated Drawings, based on Judith Cornells process of drawing the light from within, were created by drawing the images first with white pencil on black art paper.  
By creating scale of light drawing with white prismacolor pencils as the foundation, we bring our inner light out of the imaginal world of the black paper, and let the light of our intuitive, creative selves shine through onto the paper.  
This drawing, The Flower Deva, was drawn during a weeklong retreat at Esalen in Big Sur, that Judith taught, using the inner essence of the flowers to guide us.  We visualized each flower internally, as we working with the real flower, and asked the flower what it wanted from us, and how to express it visually.  This  small   Flower Deva appeared at the very end of the drawing in the lower left hand corner of the drawing.  By the end of the week, I was seeing aura's around all the flowers, and everyone I came in contact with.  What a powerful experience.  

I will post photos of the mandala's and the workshop after the weekend.  HAPPY SPRING!

MAY BALANCE AND HARMONY BEGIN TO FLOWER AND BLOSSOM ALL AROUND US!!!

FULL MANDALA - Finally Finished

I have finally finished the Full Moon, Growth mandala, that I began at our New Years Intention Setting Workshop.  Interestingly, last night was the full moon, and on Saturday March 21st, we are facilitating our Blossoming into Spring Mandala Retreat Day.  It usually takes me about 3 months to get around to finishing a mandala.  Doing these retreat days gives me an opportunity to begin a mandala, as well as set the energy for the intention that I focus on.  

This mandala was about opening  to new possibilities.  I love how the roots sink deep into the earth, and parallel the extending branches into the night sky.  The work of creating intentions is both inner and outer.  I can see that in my life as I begin to network and set seeds for new direction in my work life.

We will be holding this workshop in my studio on the first day of spring and drawing our inspiration from the flowers of spring.  Join us if you are in Northern California.  For more information you can link to our website at the Creative Arts Studio.