Now that we are well into the school year my Littles are settling into a routine and so am I to a degree. I am claiming back portions of the day for myself- which is a bit of a strange but not completely foreign feeling. For the first time in a few years I actually got out my painting supplies yesterday and settled into working on a few small pieces- I stepped away from familiar acrylics paints and into the world of encaustic. There is something just so romantic about painting with wax- something traditional- something quiet.
At it's most basic encaustic is painting with melted wax and pigment- I was inspired to purchase some great new pigmented wax sticks at our local art store on the weekend which did not disappoint. I have dabbled in encaustic before but in a more traditional manner- mixing oil pigments into a mixture of damar and bee's wax- these sticks were much more immediate.
Encaustic is more than a bit tricky- I have long admired artists who work exclusively with this fugitive medium- heating and smoothing and blending hot wax. It is hard and definitely takes some finessing. I worked for a large portion of the afternoon trying to get the wax to do what I wanted- finally I stepped away from my diminutive piece fairly happy with the results- kind of in love with the glowy vibe.
For the past few years I have madly been producing work to sell- a bit of an assembly line if you will. While I enjoy making things for Plain Jane there is something a bit restricting about working with an eye to sell for a specific market. This week in the studio- playing around with a new medium was so freeing- this is something I will surely be coming back to!
