Live and learn

I wish I had a photo for how many times this one painting that wasn't so bad changed, and changed again, and then again. I thought I had it where I liked it and didn't want to touch it for an hour......and gave it the Leslie Neumann test. According to Leslie, a painting has to look good close up, 10 feet away and across the room. This only looked good close up, so after dinner out came the torch.

What did I learn in all of this? It is better to start fresh than try to remake one painting into another painting...Starting fresh is new, and creative. Making one out of another, is chasing after it.... it can only go someway different directions...

Live and learn

April Showers Bring May Flowers and lots of changes

On the same day, my Mom passed away to higher dimensions and I got accepted into the longest established and nicest gallery around here. http://www.fifthavenueartgallery.com/

Take a look at their site. I have yet to seriously get back to painting but I will soon. Being part of a gallery seems like a lot of fun. There is quite a lot of wonderful pieces on display in the gallery, from the members and consignments.

Silhouette

This small (8x10) encaustic on board painting carries a lot of punch. It just got juried into the Artists Registry of Florida show at the Avalon Gallery in Orlando, next month. I really like the imagery and would like to do it much larger. This was a good experiment. Larger, she would be haunting.

11-11-08

Quite the auspicious day. I am doing my encaustics as much as I can and those days that I get to spend all day in the studio are awesome. Something has been telling me to get a series going but my attentions span doesn't last beyond 3 of the same idea and then I am off to another project. So the question is: Does one have to limit their creative expression on one style/type of art? This painting started with a few upward brush strokes and it was so much fun to do.....

Back in the swing of things

After the holiday haitus, I am back into the studio. I melted down some of my earlier encaustics that weren't making it and they sure came out well once they were reborn. I think because I use only pure colors, no earth tones or black, they really have a magically way to work themselves out. My new series that is on my website, are all the same. They were something else and were reborn... now if only I could figure out how to make them without having to do the first part, I would be styling. I am still having fun, I love encaustics! Only once so far did I almost burn my house down... I was at the point of going for the fire extinguisher but didn't want to deal with cleaning up the mess it would make. So I beat the fire out... such are the trials of using a torch to make art. I signed up for the 2nd annual encaustic conference in the spring, and I recently got a grant to learn 'marketing for artist'. Now won't that come in handy.

it's almost the new year

A lot of time has passed since Andre left us, the holiday season took hold and I am right now in Manchester NH where it is a winter wonderland albeit a bit cold. I haven't had the waxes heated up for a while but I am thinking about it all the time. Since then, I went to Art Basel in Miami, and my ah ha! there was, " and why am I so critical about my work?"

I also learned that bigger is better. I have a painting in a juried show in Orlando which is fun. I sent in an oil and an encaustic and the oil got in. I thought the encaustic was better but so be it. Plans are being made for the design of my new studio and all this will happen once we get back to Florida which will be in a few days.

RIP Andre 11/13/07

I know it has nothing to do with painting encaustics but we had to put our 15.5 year old dog down last week. And I am just getting over it now. It was the hardest thing we've ever had to do, but it was the right thing to do. We consulted an energy healer who told us he was toxic and in pain. The animal communicator told us he was empty, and it was his time. He was old, blind, deaf, had kidney failure which created many problems, was in pain and once we realized that we were keeping him alive just for us, we went to the vet hospital and in the kindest, most humane way, they put him to sleep. He knew it was coming. He just lay down and it was all over before the syringe was removed. There was no pain, no suffering. I still question why we make the human's that we love, suffer so as they approach death but for our pets we can be so kind. He was a great dog. He made many people happy in his long life. I think that was his job. I still talk to him and see him in the shadows. RIP Andre aka Bunny