Flowering Creativity

"Orchids"

10" x 8" mixed media on cradled panel

"Lotus"

8" x 10" mixed media on cradled panel

Each week I teach an encaustic painting class at the North Shore Art League. The class size is kept small (mainly because of electrical requirements; griddles and heat guns are essential for each student) and we have been able to cover a wide range of techniques. I feel fortunate that the women in my class are self motivated, wildly creative, and supportive.

Above are two of my recent demonstration paintings from the class. "Orchids" was created from a photo I took at the Botanic Garden Orchid show that just ended. After successfully fusing the photo into wax medium, I added depth, dimension, and details with pigments and oil pastel. This is one of my favorite techniques, allowing me to create a three-dimensional environment that if successful, brings you into another space, a place where you can practically reach out and touch your surroundings.

"Lotus" was created from what started as a simple monotype. I used Kozo (Japanese calligraphy paper) and drew with wax on an anodized aluminum plate, pressed the paper and transferred the drawing with a bamboo baren. I decided to mount the drawing onto a cradled wood panel, then added linear wax details to flowers using a tjanting tool. Once the paper was mounted and secure, I was able to add more pigmented wax, scrape and define details, and highlight with oil pastels without worrying about the fragility of the paper. This particular painting covered a wide range of encaustic techniques, and was the first time I mounted Kozo on wood panel. My monotypes are often framed under glass, treated similarly in presentation to watercolor.

I also love working in a scroll format, working in this shape and size is newer to me. "Undun" is the longest scroll I have done to date; important to me is that the color flows from top to bottom. I am probably going to shorten it to six feet (72" in height) once I attach the scroll hanger, I will hang this with a plain black rod, top and bottom, to weight it down.

"Undun"

78" x 11" encaustic monotype on Kozo

Painting with the encaustic medium is one of the most versatile mediums I have worked with and I continue to be amazed at the different ways artists explore and create with wax.

Summer Thoughts

Today in Chicago the high temperature is predicted to teeter between 0 to 5 degrees F. Wind chills are predicted to be around 30 below F tonight! This frigid weather spell has guided my inspiration into mild summer breezes and wonderfully meditative places from my past.

"Rangeley Lake"

8" x 8" mixed media encaustic on panel

"Tranquility"

8" x 10" mixed media encaustic on panel

This month is the much awaited release of "Embracing Encaustic, Learning to Paint with Beeswax", the 3rd edition ebook, offering simplified and helpful ways of how to paint with this incredibly seductive medium. I am excited to share that I am one of the 35 artists featured in the book's Inspiration Gallery section.

My painting in the book is another favorite summer escape.

"Sunday on Snow Street"

8" x 8" mixed media encaustic on panel

Partial screen shot from e-book 

All of these encaustic paintings start with a photograph I have taken from places I have visited. The photo is then burnished and fused into layers of wax medium. I add depth, texture, and pigments with encaustic paint, oil pastels, using pottery tools to scrape and sculpt the wax. If my painting is successful, it takes you on a journey into a newly discovered space with dimensionality and tangibility. I hope I was able to warm up your body and soul with a brief journey into summer.

Where to go from Here

Often, creating art is my safe haven, a place I find peace and love, beauty and serenity, even hope. This week I am on hold from the creative process. The world is scary right now; terrorism and deadly threats to humanity are running rampant, it's hard for me to ignore the darkness. This negative energy is the polar opposite from "Sacred Spaces", paintings inspired by visits to various churches, temples, and houses of worship, focused on different ways we find spirituality, peace, hope, and prayer.

Recently I visited the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago -

"Prayer to Durga Mata"

8" x 10" mixed media encaustic on board

And the 2nd Presbyterian Church of Chicago -

"Ascension #3"

2.5" x 3.5" mixed media encaustic on paper

I also visited the Bahai Temple in Wilmette (photo soon to become a painting) -

Although it wasn't a temple, I visited the Vodou Exhibit at the Field Museum this week. 

Photos from exhibit -

The exhibition featured sacred objects and even included short movies of Haitian rituals and ceremonies, I felt like I was in a sacred space. And it opened my eyes to a different way of praying, using objects to create the seduction of evil vs. good. It also educated me to how the Haitian people found ways to triumph over slavery, from love to sensuality to courage through the personification of spirits known as "Lwa". 

I am sharing an older painting from about 10 years ago during a difficult time in my life, when I felt negativity and hopelessness; this painting connects me to now -

"Sadness"

30" x 22" watercolor on paper

It takes time for me to process shifts in my creativity and I am not sure where I will go from here.

Class resumes at NSAL

Classes have resumed in the winter session at the North Shore Art League and I always start with a review supplies/studio safety, and various techniques that will be introduced with demonstrations. I am flexible and willing to deviate from the outline. If there is something more appealing to the group, we end up focusing on that. Next week image transfers and self portraits will be subject matter.

During the winter break, I was able to start a new series of work, Sacred Places, and I did complete a 2nd piece, this matches in size and shape to the first piece in the series featured here.

Working larger will come, in time.

I also have a new group of encaustic monotypes, all inspired by love of life and land. These works continue with my interpretation of sacred spaces, but the earth and landscape shines through. That, and Zen Buddhism... simplified living... finding peace.

"Entering White Space"

18" x 24"

"Red Mountain Valley"

12" x 18"

"Unknown Territories"

22" x 16"

I look forward to sharing these new works in upcoming shows and events, details to follow.

New Year, New Series to follow...

"Stained Glass"

6" x 6"

mixed media encaustic on 300 lb. Arches paper

mounted and floated in a 10" x 10" shadowbox frame

I am entering the new year with new ideas, new hopes, and new inspiration for my art. I plan to focus on historic Gothic architecture, stained glass, connecting the history of art while working with the encaustic medium. Hopefully, I will be able to explore a variety of churches throughout the city and share a unique, impressionistic vision. This first piece above is small and restricted in details; I am thinking working larger is a must. 

Recently when I visited a Gothic church in Chicago, I couldn't help but reminesce college days, spending hours in the dark basement of the art history building, studying the slide trays for upcoming exams, memorizing the details of historic religious art pieces throughout time. Boy, technology sure has changed the way we learn! 

I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous new year. Lets hope 2015 brings us all closer to finding joy and fulfillment, peace and happiness.

Full Circle

Works on Paper

December 15 - January 12, 2015 

North Shore Art League

Winnetka, IL.

When I was 12 years old, I attended Saturday art class at the North Shore Art League. Joan Weinger was my teacher, and with her guidance and encouragement, I was introduced to multiple art mediums at a young age. The days in her classes were the beginning of what has become my professional art career. I believe if it weren’t for her incredibly nurturing teaching style, I would never have connected to my love of painting, creativity, and expression. I feel fortunate that 45 years later I am back exhibiting and teaching in the very same place my artistic journey began.

Love of life, land, color, and spirituality are the common denominators. The miniature encaustic paintings are inspired by the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute, a place of fond memories and shared visits with my grandmother from years ago. I have re-created a tiny world within a 2.5" x 3.5" space, and hopefully will take you there with me. 

This show has truly brought me full circle.

"Young Girl with Umbrella"

tempera with ink resist

c. 1970

Reconnecting with Heart and Soul

"Holding Me"

26" x 19"

encaustic on Rives heavyweight

"Rifts From Within"

19" x 26"

encaustic on Rives lightweight

"Smell the Roses"

19" x 26"

encaustic on Rives heavyweight

Encaustic painting has consumed most of my creative energy for the past 5 years. My focus has been on developing a technique using image transfers fused into wax medium, enhanced with pigments and oil pastels, and learning how to master this technique. I found immediate success with the process, and have been developing a body of work with current inspiration coming from new and varied places; the city of Chicago, surrounding public and private gardens, and the lake. Shortly after I arrived in Chicago, I found an amazing gallery to represent my work, Chicago Art Source, and continue to exhibit in national juried shows, competitions, and art fairs. The gallery manager asked for larger cityscape pieces and I have spent a good portion of the year creating them. 

This past July I learned about a new process, encaustic monotypes. Immediately, I felt a connection to working on paper, using encaustic paint and layering, very similar to how I work when I am building a painting with watercolor washes. Back when watercolor was the only medium I focused on, I learned from Jeanne Carbonetti to let the paint flow, and to respond to it rather than trying to force or control it. Her teaching methods were introduced to me when I read her book, The Tao of Watercolor, and later when I went to meet her in a private 3 day workshop at her home studio in Chester, VT. My artistic path also led to reading Art as a Way of Knowing by Pat Allen, and Trust the Process by Shaun McNiff. All of these books helped to understand that for me, there are two kinds of art; the art I sell, and the art that is created to explore inner feelings, meditations, and deeper understanding. Sometimes the work can do both, but not always. 

Creating encaustic monotypes brings me back to the root of my own creative processes, to not just think with that inner critic looking over my shoulder asking "what is the most salable art to make". The purist form of creativity is the art that allows you to find your soul and comes from the heart.

Mini Works

I continue to work off of photos I took when I was recently at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I plan on going back each season but for now autumn remains my focus and inspiration. All of these are 2.5" x 3.5", mixed media encaustic on 300 lb. Arches paper.

"House on Water"

"Waterfall"

"Pathway to the Japanese Garden"

"Autumn Tree"

This and that ...

New encaustic paintings, demos from the class I teach using image transfer techniques -

"Autumn Sky"

2.5" x 3.5"

"Mums"

2.5" x 3.5"

Also, I decided to add a shellac burn to tint each of these older paintings (and made several other minor adjustments).

I removed the antelope in the foreground.

And I added color with oil pastels (below), combined with the shellac burn, to break up the massive greenery.

But the most important project I completed was organizing the details for my upcoming solo show. 22 pieces are framed and ready to hang. This week 2 other group holiday shows open, and the season is almost upon us. Where does the time go...

Demonstration Painting

I always incorporate demonstration time when I am teaching encaustic painting. I think the best way to learn new techniques is by seeing them happen.

"Chicago Botanic Garden"

8" x 10" 

encaustic on board

I used slightly tinted wax medium to build up base layers, added the warm tones of yellow-orange into the medium, which allowed the transferred image to retain the glowing colors of burnt orange. I used a pointed tool to create tree textures and added oil pastel to highlight these markings. I know the trees are going to become bare and monochromatic soon, and was anxious to capture this autumn landscape one more time.