A Final Touch

Oops... I realized last night that I'd forgotten to add the 'legs' of the ferris wheel to this piece. So, in true "Found Art" fashion, I cut up a xeroxed photo of some manhattan skyscrapers and waxed them into place this afternoon. I love the way the texture looks next to the wheel & the stylized coaster.

Found - A Behind the Scenes Look

"Found" 6x6 inch encaustic painting on 2" cradled wood panel. Prints available here.

finished piece on the wall

sketch with colored pencil added

initial sketch in my notebook



As promised, here is a glimpse into one of my works in progress. This piece, "Found," is not only the final piece in my 6-part series, but it is also my Found Art Friday entry (I will post it again!). Gosh, isn't it funny to see how different the final piece is from my original sketch!?! I actually started out with a fairly similar rendition, but I found myself starting to etch in a series of rectangles into the wax, and before I could stop myself, I was adding color, then silver leaf, then gold leaf, then... this is what emerged. Right after I started etching the grid, I was thinking, "oh no, what have I done?!," but I'm really glad I took a risk with this piece. If not in my work, then where?

And, yes, FOUND is our FAF theme this week. Please email me a link to the piece you create on your blog (or send a jpeg if you don't have a blog), and I will share your work. :)

Color My World

"Color My World" 6x6 encaustic & mixed media painting on 2" cradled wood panel. The original is not yet for sale, but prints are available now at my Etsy Shop.

Yes, I do love early Chicago lyrics. Here is another piece with a title from one of their songs. I actually was thinking of the line 'color my world with hopes of loving you' because this is the very first scene in my 6-part series. It's the "before" painting in my musings about 'before and after' that are the inspiration for this group.

And, thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments on my series. I have been thinking of Sue's comments on "Infatuation." She said that it would be fun to show some of my work in progress, and I agree. So, in my next post, I will show you my preliminary sketch for the final painting in this series. As you will see, it looks a lot different from a finished piece. And if anyone would like to see another series in progress, check out "Behind the Scenes - Creating Beginnings."

In the meantime, I have a theme for Found Art Friday. The theme is, fittingly I think, "FOUND." I will post about this again, but the date of my next FAF here will be Friday, July 30th. I hope you can join us! All are welcome to contribute a painting, photograph or other creative interpretation of this theme: FOUND.

Infatuation

"Infatuation" - 6x6 inch encaustic & collaged paper on 2" cradled wood panel. The panel sides are coated in black encaustic paint. Prints available here.

Ahhh.... infatuation. This is also part of my 6-piece current series. It is, of course, a story. And here is the part where everyone falls into giddy blissful joy. I chose abstraction for this piece because infatuation is so much like a swirlying, whirling experience of the freefall of love. Nothing stays in place for very long, everything is blooming, and the world seems super-saturated with color. Here is my interpretation (though, I must admit, I could do about 20 paintings on this theme).

Between Before and After

"Between Before and After" 6x6 inch encaustic on wood panel. Prints available here.

The title is the line from the Alice Hoffman novel called Skylight Confessions that inspired my current 6-part series. In the novel, the narrator talks about a line that we cross between "before" and "after" which, once crossed, changes everything and opens our fate to a new direction. Don't we encounter these lines every day? How often do we cross them? How do we measure the consequences?

(Happily Ever) After

"(Happily Ever) After" 6x6 inch encaustic on wood panel. Prints available here.

This is actually the tentative conclusion to my 6-part series. I love a happy ending. The entire group was inspired by a line from an Alice Hoffman novel..."the line between before and after." for some reason this phase just resonated with me, and I started sketching up a storm. More to come!

We Have Our Own Band

The lovely Penny June with her grandpa Chip. This is my new favorite of the PJ quartet because I love the way grandpa and granddaughter are gazing at each other so raptly. It looks like they are playing in their own little band. Plus it was really fun to paint the guitar on a wood surface. I used a transparent sienna for the face of the guitar and dragged slips of rolled up paper towl horizontally to capture the wood grain of the instrument. Only one Tiny Portrait of PJ left, and I'm going to start going to yoga and lying around in the sun...