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| Oil painting by Dave |
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| The group studying... |
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| Colored Pencil by Donna |
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| Iceland photo by Bill |
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| Pastel abstract by Lee |
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| Better this way? |
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| Watercolor portrait by Sarah Jane |
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| Watercolor by George |
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| Oil painting by Dave...again in that frame |
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| Colored Pencil by Gerri |
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| Alcohol Ink on Yupo by Linda |
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| Viewing upside down |
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| And, cropped |
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| Pastel landscape by Lee |
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| Another photo of Iceland ice by Bill |
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| Colored Pencil landscape by Donna |
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| Here we are again...Wednesday morning and it's our special time to get together and create. And what a beautiful morning it was, both outside and inside. As you'll recall, last week we had our mini- encaustic workshop (and it was a huge success). This week each of us brought whatever art project we chose to work on and, as usual, you'll see a variety of mediums used. I frequently like to start with Dave's project(s), and here is a sampling of what he did today. Always the "mad scientist", Dave played with his acrylic paint and made several abstracts...and had a good time doing them. Isn't that the point? |
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| Linda worked with alcohol inks today. Is that a mountain range....or are these expressionistic waves crashing on the shore? What do you see? |
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| Gerri also worked with alcohol inks this morning. Here's a close up of what the inks did when in contact with each other. The artist only has a limited amount of control over alcohol inks, so they lend themselves to pure play. |
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| Chris completed her collage, started two weeks ago. Please go back in the blog to see before and after photos. Her collage is so personal, incorporating family photos and her childhood immunization record. Very nice, Chris. |
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| Marsha brought with her some of the encaustic creations she did last week...now with mats around them. They are small but mighty and look great in the mats. Although abstract, you can find little hidden treasures in each one when you study them. Is something looking at you? |
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| Marsha started a new painting, too. You can see her reference photo, upper left, taken on a vacation. |
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| Just thought we would share a couple more of Marsha's encaustics. |
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| Can you feel the Spring air and light? Mary Ann shared her finished watercolor landscape, started several weeks ago. If you go back a couple of weeks, in the blog, you'll be able to see how this painting developed. |
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| Karen was working on her colored pencil birds prior to the encaustic workshop. Now finished, you can see her paintings made into paperweights. |
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| This week Karen was working on a colored pencil portrait. Notice her reference photo. |
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| Lee was working with her pastels today. First she did a small study...you can see her sketchbook. On the larger painting, notice how her colors "pop" on the dark background. |
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| This floral is painted in acrylic. Although this is the finished painting, it was started at the Rec. Center this morning. Sorry, I forgot to photograph it while it was being worked on there. Fortunately, I had a chance to work on it later at home. The first three weeks in May seemed to fly by. We won't be getting together again until the first Wednesday in June (June! Already!). Come join us on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 from 9am till noon at the Brunswick Rec. Center. Everyone is welcome. |
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| Today was quite an interesting (and fun) day. This was the day we held a mini-encaustics workshop for anyone who wanted to join in. Lee began our session by giving a little history of encaustics and demonstrated how to get started. We painted "small" today, mostly on heavy card stock cut into 2" x 3" or 3" x 5" pieces. Because we were working with melted wax crayons, we were careful to contain any dripping wax onto a metal cookie sheet (or aluminum covered surface). |
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| As you can see, we had a full house this morning. Sixteen artists came out this morning for the workshop. |
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| After we watched Lee's demonstration, everyone was ready to dive in. At first the room was very quiet as we all began to work. It didn't take long before we were having fun, and the noise level went up as we compared our creations and talked. |
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| The following photos will show a sampling of everyone's efforts. You'll be able to get a sense of the variety of effects that can be attained by using a dark colored surface to melt the wax onto (colors "pop" more against a dark surface) versus a white surface. Also, notice the effects when scratches are made into the still-warm, liquid wax. |
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| Dave used a different method for the encaustics he created. Instead of melting crayons onto the foot plate of a hot craft iron, he utilized a hot plate to melt encaustics wax, then painted the melted wax onto his metal surface. He then pressed a sheet of rice paper into the melted wax, creating a mono- print effect. |
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| Here he used a gold foil paper for his mono-print. The photo does not do it justice, I'm afraid. However, I think you'll agree that his result was quite unique. |
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| This time Dave used a silver foil paper. It really was vibrant. Hopefully, you can get a sense of some of the reflective qualities when using the foil papers. |
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| Barb split her art time between an encaustic project and beginning a watercolors painting. |
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| Jim continued working with his watercolor painting, started last week. If you check last week's blog posting, you'll be able to see how his artwork is progressing. Thank you everyone for coming out today. Creating with encaustics meant bringing supplies that we don't usually bring for our regular artwork. Thank you, Lee, for bringing lots of extra supplies so that everyone could try a variety of materials. I think everyone who experimented with the encaustics today will agree that it added a little "spice" to our art time. Next Wednesday, May 18th, please bring along whatever art medium you would like to paint with for our time at the Rec Center. |