New Encaustic.....and its process

I am finally back working in my studio and have just begun a new series.....using photo transfer on encaustic.  

Here is the final piece....using a series of photographs made into zerox's over the encaustic paint

I really love how it turned out....so I decided to show the stages of the piece.

The Gateway..

I am having soo much fun...who knows what comes next. 

Sweet little Bella Bird Encaustic Featured

My sweet little "Bella Bird"  encaustic mixed media painting is being featured on the etsy  Beeswaxteam website.   I just love this piece.  It is exciting to see others like it as well.  I enjoy connecting with other artist's who work in encaustic, which is what this site allows me to do.

BELLA BIRD

This piece is available for sale on my etsy site Soularteeclectica.

I am getting excited by the fact that my upcoming Exploring Encaustics two day workshop at the end of February is filling already.  Today after my Medicine Art Women's group I plan on getting the hot plates fired up and making another large batch of encaustic medium.   I am happy to be back into the swing of working in my studio again.

PLAYING IN THE STUDIO

Well I haven't gotten back to the encaustics yet, but I have been slowly cleaning, sorting, rearranging and getting into playing with possibilities.

I have joined an ATC  (Artist Trading Cards ) group to get me moving creatively...even though I have made ACEO's before and sold them on my etsy site...I haven't traded them.  

There is something very freeing about doing art just for the sake of it, without worrying about selling it.

So I decided to post my process.  I

 just am having fun playing with possibilities.   These are still in process by the way.

Speaking of process art, which is what my work as an art therapist is all about, and what primes the pump creatively.  Last week I attended Patricia's Creative Process open group, ( my friend and partner in the Creative Arts  Studio, and fellow art therapist).  

She shows a film of an artist for inspiration....and then participants  do art in response or influenced by what they saw in the film.  She showed a film about Betty La Duke who is one of my favorite,  contemporary woman painters.  This oil pastel drawing is what came through for me that day.  

I was so engaged that I worked on it some more 

when I got back home.   

Later I realized that this piece was all about RELEASE  and opening up to messages from the 

unconscious, as well as embracing the spaciousness that has come with me no longer working everyday working at Santa Rosa J.C. 

I forgot how much I love working in oil pastels and just letting what wants to come through to come through.

So far, I haven't gotten back to the mandala I created at the retreat...but I will soon.  Ahh, so many directions that call me, no wonder, I am so busy even though I am not working in a traditional manner any more.  

Speaking of reorganizing the studio...I am doing this because I hope to build up my private practice once again, fill my womens group and get ready for a two day Encaustic Class I plan to do at the end of next month.  MOre to come...

Mandala Workshop

The New Years Intention Setting Mandala Workshop was a wonderful success on many levels.  We had 23 participants, who enthusiastically dove deeply  into the mandala process.

The new location we used was lovely and it was a full moon, which we all were able to watch rise over Sonoma Mountain at the end of the day.

Here are some of the mandala's with color  applied being viewed on the wall.  Once again the images are blurry but you can get a sense of the variety and splendor of them in this shot.

The day was full, satisfying and creatively nurturing for everyone who attended.   

Here are some of the earlier in the day small mandala's a black and white  one's prior to color being added.


                The illuminated glow of the white scale of light on the black, really has power.

mandalas in process

                                                     White on black small mandala's .

Here are some mandalas with color added

each so unique 

        unfortunately some of the photos are not clear but it still gives a sense of their power

strength and beauty

I will show the mandala that  I began  and show its progression on a later post.  I just love having mandala to work on and spend delicious time focusing on it and my intention.  More to come.    

CELEBRATE!!

Celebrate 

Mixed Media Collage

I created this collage last year on New Years Eve.  This year I find myself far more reflective, turning inward and reevaluating my life, my dreams, goals and visions.   Perhaps, the long

 needed rain that is falling today here in Sonoma County, adds to the feeling of reflection as well.  

My thoughts turn to celebrating life and all it has to offer, the gifts  all around me, the sacredness of the earth, the creative potential of life, and the joys of creativity.  I am placing my attention more on the open doors, than the ones that have closed.

Next weekend, we will be facilitating an Illuminated Mandala, New Years Intention Setting Retreat, in a lovely setting at the Center for Spiritual Living in Petaluma.  I long to settle into a delicious day of slow, and sacred artmaking.  Placing my attention on my visions for the year in a prayerful way, as I create a mandala with prismacolor pencils, brings me to a deeper sense of my life, my dreams and my focus for the year.  I also love, love love to draw in community.

If you are in or near the San Francisco Bay area and want more information, check out the Creative Arts Studio website for more information.  I will be posting lots of images of the mandalas participants create soon!

Wishing you Peace and Blessings in 2009

Happy New Year....

I received this Mary Oliver poem today,  from my good friend Patricia. I love Mary Oliver's poetry, and this piece  speaks so perfectly for this time in our lives,  so I am offering it up to you all.  Wishing you Peace.

WAGE PEACE

by Mary Oliver

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and 

breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion

and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen 

and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening; hearing sirens pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup. Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Don't wait another minute.

Winter Approaches-Into the Dark Holding the Light

As the Winter Solstice approaches, I am trying to place my attention on holding the light..as I feel the dark moving into my body and soul.    

It is a time to move into the deep of the night and  to take time to dream my life anew.  With the New Year comes change and it is time for reevaluating direction and remembering to follow dreams put on hold.

Encaustic on foam core.  

"Follow your Dreams"

I am revisiting the places, people, and blogs where I find inspiration to guide me towards the light. 

I love Lanie Gerity's  Artist's Happiness Challenge and her Secrets for a Happy Artist's Life.

14 Secrets for a Happy Artists Life. Here they are.

Find 3 good things every day, whether they are experiences, or objects or both.  

Find a way to use them in art.

Make everything special.  Embellish you life.

Look for Fairy God-mothers and Angels.  

Be ready for experiences that will delight and surprise you.

Play more often.   Look for smiling faces.

Wish everyone a happy life.

Find something to love about where you are every day.

Make art everyday. 

Create time for yourself.

Honor thy grandmothers as much as possible.

Play with the grandchildren as much as possible.

Create beauty wit what you have on hand.

Mare art with friends.  Make art as gifts.

Create a list of  secrets for a happy life and pass it on.

So please pass this on...I too am making a list for a happy life.   

Happy and Blessed Solstice to All  

HOLD THE LIGHT!!!

HOLDING THE LIGHT 

 Encaustic mixed media.  3"x5"  on masonite panel

Available for purchase on my etsy store.

Soularteeclectica

I have just come across this wonderful poem about the winter solstice 

and I just have to add it here.  Enjoy....

So, the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us - Listen!!

All the long echoes sing he same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!!

Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day