Last month, on April 17th, I spent the day at Muse Art + Design on Hawthorne creating an encaustic painting for An Artist a Day, an annual event that auctions off original works of art to benefit Schoolhouse Supplies. This wonderful event is a great community builder dreamt up by Muse Art owner, Peter Rossing. Each year 30+ artists contribute their time and talent and spend a day painting in the Muse art window. It’s wonderful to see how different artists work and develop a piece. It was great to talk with all the visitors who came through the store to learn more about the work. I even got to spend time with some of my former students which was really nice! It’s also fun to see all the different kinds of artwork that are available for auction. The auction ends tonight, Thursday, May 13th. Opening bids are $75 and can be placed over the phone or via email. Join us tonight for the reception and auction from 6-8 PM. Below are some pictures from my day painting.
Here is my set-up. Very bright and comfortable. I enjoyed painting in a big window and having people watch and ask questions.
These are the first layers of my piece. There are about 8 layers here. People asked when I was going to start painting. It made me laugh! Building a surface is painting!
Here I’m fusing the layers of wax together. I love my new big blow torch!
I begin my paintings with a blind contour drawing by scribing lines deep into the wax. I need about 6-8 layers of wax before I can do this which is why it takes so long to get “to the painting” part. I also always paint from a subject. This day I was working from a photograph of a beautiful, purple hibiscus flower. Once the lines are carved into the wax, I drizzle hot wax, in this case Payne’s Gray, into the lines.
Once the drizzled color has cooled lines, I carve away the drippings which reveals an inlaid line of color.
After the lines are cleaned, I begin to add veils of color, building layer upon layer.
Here I’ve added red, yellow and other colors to the layers.
This is where I stopped at the end of the day.
Another three hours of building color, blending edges and fusing layers resulted in the finished piece. Come tonight and bid on this piece!
