Ink Paper Wax, my exhibition is on view at the Pearl Fincher MFA through the 20th of this month in the Marilyn Morgan Hillery Community Gallery.  My thanks go to both The Pearl Fincher MFA and Lone Star College for their combined efforts in sponsoring this event once a year and to my fellow faculty members, Suzanne Shield-Polk and Laura Fisher at the CyFair campus of Lone Star for offering this year's exhibition to me.  To Rosemary Hickman, Education Director at the Pearl, a huge thank you for all her work and support from curating the work for the show, the lovely presentation to all the behind-the-scenes work that is required to achieve this seamless presentation.  

Below are some images of my exhibition.

Center of wall looking back into the main gallery,  (center )New Language/Booked,  grid of twelve  ink drawing on book pages with oil bar & encaustic medium on 12 x 9 inch panels.
L. Slow Burn 

Grid of twelve book pages with ink drawings and encaustic medium on panels. 

Far right- Skin Tight, paper, cotton cloth, oil bar with encaustic on panel. 42 x 24 inches.
Center- Paint Your Skin /704B6, Encaustic/oil bar on panel, 30 x 36 inches
Right-New Language/Booked 

L. River of Dreams,  Encaustic/paper and Ink on two panels.
Diptych 

L-R,  Slow Burn, New Language, Paint Your Skin, Skin Tight

L-R, Paint Your Skin and Skin Tight

Little boxes 

Suzanne, Matthew and another guest. 

Houston Summer 2011 - In and Around My Studio

I spent a lot of time away from my studio in the early part of the summer. Between family visits and the Encaustic Conference I managed to be away about 6 weeks and only got seriously working in July. 

Considering how hot and dry it got here the rest of the summer, I should have just waited til the heat got too intense and then left.

Before I left Houston in May, I spent a day down in Galveston with artist Marie Laterme at her studio participating in a monoprint workshop she held. I think there were 8 of us there. Her studio  had been  torn up and flooded by Ike and she and her husband had just gotten it back into a condition so that she can work there.

L - Marie Laterme with workshop participants in her studio in Galveston.

It was great fun and everyone was full of creative energy. For me, it was great to get back into a printmaking studio again. I decided to use some of the imagery below (ink drawings on old book pages) along with some earlier ink drawings as possible points of departure for my some of my prints.

  

 

I spread them out on the floor in my dining room to get this picture. Various inks were used; Sumi, India, and some Doc Martin colored inks. Tools were twigs, bamboo pens and brushes. 

This one is done with ink pad and stamp.

 Here are images of some of my monoprints. Not wonderful but made me want to get back there and so more.

Mine are the green one on top right and dark blue just underneath it.

My images on right side. Point of departure for these is from an earlier series of ink drawings.

This is the little ink drawing mentioned above.

At home in my studio, I continued with my plan to use the ink drawings on book pages with encaustic medium. Onto white gessoed  9 x 12 inch panels I edged the border corners with black oil bar and let it dry to touch. At this point I could adhere the page to the panel with encaustic medium. I have to say that the fun part was the drawing part with the ink. The rest was mostly rote work. However, I like the finished product and plan to complete the mission with all the drawings.
 

Wall of twelve. Title for this series hasn't been chosen yet.

Below are individual photos of two of the images.
 

 

Here is a wall of my studio with some of my oil paintings, and a new painting in progress with book pages and acrylic. 60 x 48 inches on canvas.
Below is another view with smaller oils along with a few Encaustic pieces.

Last but not least, below is my new shelf for storing encaustic paints thanks to my generous husband and his handy work.

This series of the 12 ink drawings on book pages along with some other Encaustic paintings and Organic Compounds (little boxes) will be exhibited beginning Oct 27 through November at the Pearl Fincher MFA located just north of Houston in Spring. Opening reception is October 27.
The oil paintings in the studio photos will be on exhibit at Buchanan Gallery in Galveston. Opening reception for that is Oct 8.

Tide Pool, Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

Make It Red in Tucson and Other Adventures

Part One: Before the Opening

No, the image below isn't red nor was it part of the Make It Red exhibition. But those large cacti do reside in Tucson. Sure---we have cactus here in Texas too, but you have to admit these cacti are pretty spectacular.

Side-of-road pictures on my way back into town from Desert Museum. 

Dec. 4th, (last Saturday) was the was the reception for the Make It Red Exhibition at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson.  Some of my paintings were selected for Make It Red, so while lots of folks were in Miami,  (Art Basel Miami) I decided to make the trek to Arizona. Below is the gallery.

Conrad Wilde Gallery (the one with the white sign above the window)

I arrived into Tucson mid-afternoon on Friday and with some time on my hands I was looking for something to do.  On the way to the hotel's little restaurant to get a bite to eat, I noticed a lot of activity around the entrance to the ball room. Hmm. What? A Cat Show? After my Quesadilla and margarita,  I stopped in at the ballroom  to see what a Cat Show was all about. It was the TICA Cat Show sponsored by the Coatimondi Cat Club and it was going on the whole weekend. Would cost me five bucks to get in.

This is one of the more elegant breeds of cats at the show. All were pretty spectacular.

I'm not necessarily proud of this but I have four cats of my own so I was curious.  Long story-won't bore you about how I happen to have four cats, but suffice it to say that I know my cats would hate a cat show.  However, I thought it wouldn't hurt for me to kill a bit of time learning what well behaved, beautiful cats do in a cat show.  I bought a ticket.
Stay with me just a bit longer. The Short Haired cats were interesting to look at but kind of skinny. Even skinnier and stranger were the Hairless cats. They were very pink. I thought they might be embarrassed. I would give the Sphinx cats the blue ribbon for being the strangest looking. Spinx supposedly are of Egyptian origin but I think they are really from Mars.

The Sphinx cats at the show looked stranger than this one I found on Wikipedia.

Seriously though, the cats were beautiful and exotic and they didn't seem to mind at all being handled and prodded by strangers.
Also, I am sure the Hairless and Short Hair have more exotic names than just Hairless or Short Hair.
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Next day, I met up with artist Catherine Nash in her large and lovely Tucson studio. Her studio (shared with her husband, Robert Renfrow) is large enough for her to hold classes for about 10 or more students. Among other things, Catherine makes paper for her projects like handmade books, sculptural pieces or mixed media collage with Encaustic. The studio can be turned into a dark room for her husband's use.Click here to see one of Robert's and Catherine's collaborative pieces.

Catherine Nash in her Tucson studio with some of her paintings against the wall behind her.

Studio from the back of the room looking toward front door.

Paper making flats on shelf high on the wall. Her pulp beater and felts were in a large closet for when she needs it.

One of Catherine's paintings and sorry, Catherine for the blurry photo and not remembering the title.

Catherine is a collector of things, many of which wind up in her paintings, assemblages or collages. She had many treasures tucked on shelves and in boxes all around the studio.

Boxes holding some of Catherine's collections.

I was curious about how she develops her ideas when combining found objects in her Encaustic paintings. She told me she works with a print makers sensibility in initial stages of developing ideas, having done print making for many years.  The sketchbook image in the picture below is a demo for one the classes she teaches.

Part II: Make It Red

Visiting the gallery was next. The shot below was taken earlier in the day on Saturday. As you can see,
all the lights haven't been turned on. My photo suffered a bit from that. Here is am near the back of the gallery looking toward the street. My monotypes, Queen's Cape I and II are on the half wall in front of the window. Mari Marks four paintings are next. My painting, Tan My Hide is next then Margaret Suchland's paintings.

Inside Conrad Wilde Gallery-Make It Red Exhibition

One of Mari Mark's paintings-Spectrum Series

Paintings by Mari Marks

Above and below: Paintings by Margaret Suchland.

Beata Wehr had three pieces in this exhibition. Two pieces were books. Below is one of Beata Wehr's books. The red metal box holds the book. Book pages are made from pieces of linen Beata purchased in Poland. The lightly primed linen has been torn to shape and stitched to make a codex type book. Pages are decorated with found rusty metal objects that have been stitched onto them. Beata said she finds these objects all over.

Red Toolbox Story, Beata Wehr

Beata's Encaustic painting

A Very Long Story by Beata Wehr

Left: A Story Line, Gwendolyn Plunkett, Encaustic and oil bar on panel, 24 x 24 inches

Guston,  Elizabeth Sheppell, Oil on Panel, 48 x 48 inches

There was a good crowd at the reception. Artists in attendance besides me were David Clark who flew in from Palm Springs, and Beata Wehr, who lives in Austin. David is pictured on the right side of the photo below.

Reception

Reception

Reception: L-R Ryan, Beata, Gwen, David

Reception

Tucson artist, Sherrie Pasternak, here in this photo talking about her recent stay in Mexico.

L -R Beata, Sherrie, Gwen

Queen's Cape I and II, Encaustic Monotypes on panel, 19 x 15.5 inchees

Larraine Seiden

Larraine's painting above, and Carrie's below literally glow. They are wonderful to look at.

Carrie Seid

Skin Game, Gwendolyn Plunkett, Encaustic, 24 x 24 inches

David A. Clark, Monotypes

Tan My Hide, Gwendolyn Plunkett, Encaustic/Lokta paper/Oil bar, 30 x 24 inches

Many thanks to Miles and Ryan, to Elizabeth, Nicola and all who participated in this exhibition. It is always exciting to see your own work on the wall in a fine gallery like Conrad Wilde Gallery along with other fine artists' works. I very much enjoyed my visit to Tucson and hope I get to return again soon.