Blog

So I haven't blogged in about a year and a half. That tells you how much I love to write about myself. My mentor Alicia Tormey said its good practice to blog everyday, so we'll see how that goes. I have mostly been working on encaustic painting for the past 2 years. It's been a challenge because it's so different from anything I've ever done. Drawing, pastel, oils and ink are what Iv'e worked with previously. You have so much control with them. If you make a mistake its can easily be corrected. That's not the case with encaustic. You paint with melted wax then fuse it with a torch. You can add alcohol ink and shellac for detail but they are very fragile and can break up if you aren't careful. When you make a small mistake you can sometimes scrape it or paint over it and fix it. Many times I have had to scrape the entire piece and start over. 

Being a control freak, it has been hard for me to go with the flow. But, I am doing it. When I have finished a piece that I'm happy with it feels like quite the accomplishment. That is why I have been sticking with it. 

I just finished this piece a few days ago. It's a 24x18 encaustic piece with alcohol ink and shellac. 24x18 is considered a large piece in the world of encaustic. That alone was a challenge. Its the first piece that I've done that was mostly alcohol ink. Painting with ink gave me back a little of that control that I'd been missing. I was really able to make the cacti and flowers have the realism that I am more comfortable with in my work.  

I have a few other things that I am currently working on as well. I started a new little encaustic piece, I am fixing an old oil painting that I am unhappy with and I am starting a new, large oil painting to put in my foyer. I went from being blocked for 2 months to not being able to focus on

1 thing. Funny how it goes.