Embracing Encaustic....

Last month I finally was able to attend a workshop in Portland with renowned encaustic artist, Linda Womack. The six hour class covered all the basics of encaustic painting from making medium and preparing the support to the actual painting, fusing, incising the wax, filling lines, adding collage pieces and lots more. I was only able to complete two pieces as I was really into just trying different things and seeing how they worked, not trying to create a masterpiece. Here's my first trial...



Here's an angle shot so you can see the texture gouged out with tools...



I am so enthralled with the look and feel of the wax that I think this is something that I could really get into, so a few days ago I ordered my first five pounds of beeswax. I have some paints and damar and a heat gun etc. so I've been shopping the last few days for a pancake griddle online and managed to find a giant one at Kohl's in Medford that I plan to pick up tomorrow. So it looks like soon I could be off into the wonderful world of encaustic painting. I'll post the results when I get started.



But first I need to seriously work on the studio reorganization and remodel so I have some space for this new passion. I'm also thinking that encaustic monoprints would dovetail nicely with the class I took in February, so will be thinking about that as well. Ah learning is great....