AisA Academy

Calla Lily #2 July 29, 2009

Ooooo. I had time to mess with the encaustic today. If you read my previous post, you know that my first technique was to embed a photo in clear beeswax and then touch it up using encaustic paint. I wanted to try and make the colors bolder and with more contrast—instead of having the milky-translucence of clear wax on top. So today, after embedding the photo, I used paint on the entire surface, including the black background. The result is quite different, and I learned a lot.

I have never tried to mix-to-match colors before (ever!), so that was a fun challenge. (Addendum: to get the shadow-gray to look right I had to add in green and yellow. Who would have thought!) Also, the various colors melt at different temperatures (I use a heat gun to melt each layer to fuse them) so it was a challenge to melt enough to remove texture and heavy brush stokes without having everything melt into mush.

Anyway—I like both effects. They are just different. It’s difficult to show the detail, but here they are. Which do you like best?

First method:

Second method:

Post series: New Project,   Calla Lily #2,  Calla Lily #3,  Calla Lily #4,  Back to Encaustics

New Project July 29, 2009

My life is currently so full of things these days which could drag me down if I let them: my father-in-law’s cancer, the difficulty of connecting with my teenage son, the prospect of a significant increase in government control of  medical care, and the progressive destruction of wealth and future prosperity due to mistaken fears and “solutions” to climate change. In an interesting reaction,  I find I am drawn more and more toward fiction and art. The former is clearly an escape, allowing me to immerse myself in worlds of my own choosing, but the latter is a rediscovered release–an active focus on beauty, and on my own productive creativity.

Art, as a “selective recreation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments,” * presents the opportunity and the challenge of choosing what I think is worth my time and effort to construct and will provide continued pleasure through repeated viewing. It expands upon the idea of finding 3 good things to balance out the mundane and discouraging parts of life.

I have never put in the time to develop my skills at drawing, so it’s a major commitment to start from scratch and create a visual image I find pleasing. Instead, I find photography an excellent way to capture a piece of reality, with the selection of subject and the composition of visual elements within the photo serving as the aspects which make it creative and a unique expression of my metaphysical values.

After my first attempt at encaustic collage, I tried to make another just using wax. The result was a learning experience not worth keeping and I eventually melted it off the claybord and threw away. My latest idea is to use my own photos as a starting point. Below is the first one of a set of 4 images of a calla lily from my backyard which I was able to capture with the early morning sun illuminating it against the dusky-black of a foggy dawn.

After adhering the photo to a claybord, I used the encaustic paint (pigmented beeswax) to heighten the color and add obvious brush strokes. I like the effect, though I want to try it again with even more use  of the paints to make the contrasts bolder, and just to see how it changes.

Here is the photo:

and here is the encaustic:

I am generally pleased with how it turned out and can’t wait to experiment more and to work on the other three photos.

* pg. 19 The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand

Post series: New Project,   Calla Lily #2,  Calla Lily #3,  Calla Lily #4,  Back to Encaustics 

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First Encaustic July 13, 2009

This past week I tried a new art technique: encaustic. This is painting and collaging with beeswax. For more information on this medium, check out the website of my friend and instructor at Open Studio. I have already learned a lot. I am intrigued with experimenting to improve my ability to capture my ideas concretely.

Here is my first attempt:

I made many mistakes….some of which I was able to correct. Others I have accepted as just part of the piece.

I’d like to learn how to further soften the edges of Lady Justice, and I have some ideas to try.

I want to see what happens when I embed flower petals and other fragments from nature.

And what will it be like to try and actually create a realistic image using the beeswax “paint”?  I can already tell that it will be pretty tricky.

Oooo. I love new things!!

Addendum 7/25/09: For the source of the central image “Lady Justice” see my previous blog post.