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

Mud Pies

I love the versatility of encaustic paint. The way one can build up textures, make collage, and maintain organic-looking translucencies are all excellent qualities in my book.
But lately, I've been playing around with Golden Acrylic Tar Gel and Golden Matt Gel (no, not with wax!) but attempting to achieve the "look" of encaustics but with acrylic paint. But first I made mud pies.

I began mixing the gels with some Walnut Ink crystals I've been using for drawings. The ink crystals dissolve in the gel and create an amber glaze. If you puddle the gel on the surface of the substrate and sprinkle a bit of the ink crystals on top and rub with your fingers you make a sort of mud pie but you get some really nice textures. The acrylic medium seals the undissolved ink keeping it from reconstituting if the surface gets wet.

Like all acrylic mediums, tar gel is an excellent gluing agent...as is Encaustic, and both are translucent when dry. The gels and all acrylic mediums are great for collage. So you can really do many of the same things in both media. Acrylic paintings are less fragile in their finished state however.

You can't really dig into the acrylic surface after it has dried like you can with encaustic but you can accommodate that by adding another layer of the paint and dig or scratch back into it exposing the under layer.

In the the two images below you can see where the ink crystals mix with the gels to create amber glazes and also the "mud pie" in the dark crusty areas. These are both 12 inches square on birch plywood substrates. I may go back with a satin glaze to keep the surface from being so shiny. (I feel very unfaithful to my encaustics!)