Sunday, October 2, 2011

Encaustic Painting

I had a wonderful opportunity to try my hand at encaustic painting today in Portland in a fabulous workshop by Serena Barton at the Art and Soul Retreat. Here are two of my paintings from today.


This one was very well received by the class, including the instructor! I was somewhat surprised because it wasn't at all planned and is in fact, a simple doodle, much like I do on my notepads every time I'm on the phone, or sitting in a meeting. But somehow, it works here, with a muted palette. We were supposed to be striving for a "wabi sabi" aesthetic, using a muted palette, and embracing imperfection.

Here's another one, in which I used more collage elements.


I think this is my favorite one of the day. I'm happy with balance of collage elements, paint and texture. It was fun letting these paintings evolve, without worrying too much about the outcome. The process of encaustic painting definitely suits my approach to my artwork. So now I'll need to think about whether it is worth the trouble to try this at home.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

7 comments:

  1. MandyOctober 11, 2011 at 4:00 AM

    Love this...love the colours...xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristin DudishOctober 11, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    The muted colors are beautiful! I love the look of encaustic painting, but I am so intimidated by the technique! The closest I've come is coating paintings with beeswax ;)

    I look forward to seeing what else you create (encaustic or not)!

    xo
    Kristin

    ReplyDelete
  3. DebbieOctober 12, 2011 at 7:45 PM

    Thanks so much for stopping by, Kristin! Encaustic painting was surprisingly easy to do! I would recommend going to a workshop or class to try it, though, so you can see how the paints and wax are set up, and have someone show you the process. The only big no-no is that you can't use acrylic, and you have to remember to always fuse the layers before adding another layer. Other than that, it seems to be a very forgiving medium to work with. I hope you get a chance to try it out!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. DebbieOctober 12, 2011 at 7:46 PM

    Thanks to you, too, Mandy!! I appreciate your comments. The colors were a more muted palette than I usually use. it was fun to try something different!

    ReplyDelete
  5. EVAOctober 13, 2011 at 6:17 AM

    They are both lovely but the first I especially like. Encaustic sounds like a challenging technique.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tracey FKOctober 14, 2011 at 10:30 PM

    The second collage is lovely... I love the composition and the colour palette. It has a really great atmosphere to it xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. DebbieOctober 17, 2011 at 7:14 PM

    Thank you for visiting, Tracey. I agree -- I was really happy with that one, too. It was so easy and fun to collage with the wax.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)