Studio time is a challenge when you have a full-time “day job” and a family. Weekends become my art/writing time. Waiting for the wax to melt gives me time to add a verse to my Twitter Poetry page – if you’re interested you can visit me there @Wordy_Woman.
Last weekend in the studio produced two encaustic pieces.
Crazy Eight
and Sunset Over Water
All in all, not a bad weekend.
I love to experiment with textures, papers, different mediums, whatever I can find to re-purpose, reuse, or re-imagine. I love making it up as I go. The pieces start to tell me their own stories, take on their own lives. Right now, I’m using a base of abstract watercolor on wood panels which I will layer with encaustic wax.
These will be mounted on a raised wood panel that has had paper from torn brown paperbags applied to the surface with acrylic matte medium. I will also layer paint and encaustic waxes to this foundation but here is where I am, so far. Hmmm…how will it look when I’m done?
This is an encaustic and mixed media piece I did last November but I’d never mounted it. Since I had so much fun working with watercolors and encaustics for Buddha on the Mountain, I thought I’d mount this one on a framed wood panel with watercolor and encaustic wax on crumpled tissue paper. I love the colors and textures that emerged in this process.
I love my studio days – the rare times when I can spend the entire day lost in the creative flow. Yesterday was just such a day. The preparation for creating art is all part of the process. The hours spent mixing the encaustics – melting wax with damar resin and adding color are just as rewarding as the hours spent painting. I love the serendipity of it all. Yesterday was a very good day and it was all about being in the moment – ergo the name of my Bodhavista who emerged from the flow.
In the Moment
Encaustic paint is my medium of choice. While I enjoy printmaking, mixed media and traditional paint, encaustic holds a special place in my creative heart. I love the smell of it, the texture of it, and especially the vibrancy and heat of it – I am a fire sign, after all. My latest flight of heated fancy is what I call She String; a translation of Bojana Randall’s painting “She is Violin” to wax.
There are days when the Spirit fills you and it cannot be contained. Once we open to it, to her, she will posses you when and where she pleases. Some call her Muse, others name her God – I like to think of her as Lover. She strokes my soul with an electric hum – vibration and movement which cannot be resisted.
She is my Love and my Life and my Savior. She is the spark which ignites me and sets me on fire.
Yesterday, her flame grew so hot she melted wax and guided my hand to create something new…a work in progress.
Rowena's Art Box 