"Beginnings" 24x24 inch encaustic painting on cradled wood panel.I thought it would be kind of fun to share a behind-the-scenes look of me creating one of my encaustic painting, so I chose my newest piece -- "Beginnings" -- a 24x24 inch encaustic on wood painting.
One of the fun things about these images, I think, is that they show how utterly freezing it is in my sunporch studio. You can 'see' the cold by my horrific 3-layered painting attire. Here I'm sporting thermal undewear, a turtleneck, the shirt Christophe didn't want for Christmas in 2008 and 2 pairs of pants. Despite the cold, I manage to press on, warming myself by the radiating thermals of the heat gun.
The other fun part of the pictures, is the cool transformation that occurs when I add encaustic paint COLOR to the collage that I've created on the wood. But, I have to tell you that it was really hard working with encaustic violet. It's such a dramatic bright color, so I had to really thin it down with medium. Then it took forever to cover the 24" wide area I was working with because the color was so translucent. In fact, working this largely is a big challenge because the wax dries so quickly in transit from the hotplate to the canvas. And working vertically means colors melt and drip into each other. Working horizontally can mean minimal space on a table (plus accidents when you push the right corner underneath the hotplate and melt it off...).
On the whole, I love the larger pieces. They are so dramatic. I hung this one up in my yellow dining room last night and looked at it sparkling beneath the chandelier. I don't really want to let it go...
