More New Work for Show on War

I started this project about a year ago. My idea was to use iconic media images as image transfers encased in wax, and tie a number of images together into a large piece. I wanted to pick some of the most recognizable images that I think almost anyone would know; images that said something about how we as a human race treat each other.

I did a couple of them last year to check out the possible process. Then I spent many hours searching mostly online for just the right images.

I came up with a composition that included way too many images at first, then eventually narrowed it down to the most interesting and iconic 25 images, but finally, I eliminated all but nine images for this piece.

I decided to manipulate them digitally to reduce them down even further to their iconic essence, and then I decided to print them as Giclee prints. After mounting the prints on boards, I painted the whole surface with a single color of encaustic.

Finally, I linked all the images on boards together with chain links.

I got it all done and shot in time to apply to a local show about war -- with a good 15 minutes to spare before the deadline!

Here's the piece:

"What Have We Become?"
9 Digital Prints with Encaustic on Masonite, and Chain Links
37" x 34"

Reworked Old Into Totally New Painting

This started out as my first Cel Animata painting, then became the "Nothing But Flowers" painting (see last version below); I scraped the whole thing down today and started over; after months and months of work and 1/8" worth of wax later, I finally like it!

"All the Way from Africa"
Encaustic on Paper on Board

12" x 12"

New Painting

Brand new abstraction. This feels like a new direction for me. I gotta say, I like it!


"Number One Campfire"
Encaustic and beeswax on paper on board
12" x 12"

My First Hurricane Painting

Katrina, of course.

This was much more difficult than the tornado paintings, for some reason. Seems like it needs to be far bigger, also (it's only 10"x8" and will be mounted on a larger sheet of baltic birch plywood and framed, just like the tornado paintings).

But not bad for a start. I may work on it some more; I don't know...

Mega Tornado!

I actually started this one prior to the one in the previous post (below). This was the first of the tornado paintings painted into a rough and very absorbent watercolor paper mounted on Masonite.

This is also one of those paintings that was rockin' in a way after my initial painting session, but one tiny area wasn't quite right, and in changing that area, I ended up changing and repainting pretty much the entire painting several times before arriving at this. In the initial painting, the wax had soaked deeply into the watercolor paper in a fascinating, beautiful and unexpected way, and so looked far more like a slightly shiny watercolor painting than like my other encaustics.

So I discovered yet another way to work with encaustics. Love it and hope to retain that sense of watercolor-y patchiness in a future painting (that effect did not quite survive the several repaintings).

Tornado Over a Lake

You can see I've gotten comfortable with the encaustic process again, as this little painting (which I love), has gotten more away from abstraction than the three previous ones (below).

This one was painted into rough watercolor paper mounted on masonite. This paper really soaks up a lot of the wax paint, so many more layers were required to achieve the effect I was looking for.

A White Tornado

Here's another -- a really huge tornado. I love how the diagonal lines worked out in this piece. It is again, one of those paintings that's truly paint first and an image second.

I imagine painting this again in oil, about four times as large, and really abstracting it away from the 'image' of a tornado -- just abstract shapes of color and texture.

I hope you get a chance to see this painting up close and personal -- it is full of beautiful little passages of paint. Come to my studio for the East Austin Studio Tour this coming November or call me to make arrangements to see this in person. Check my website for contact info.

More Encaustic Tornado Paintings

It felt so good to see my little tornado paintings in the AVAA show, and I've always intended to keep painting them until...whenever. So, here's my first tornado painting in a while; I had started it months ago, but it was too 'happy,' so today I took it in a dramatically different direction.

Unlike the abstract encaustic paintings, these semi-representational paintings really require a delicate balance. Because it had been a while since I painted like this in encaustic, my tendancy was to let it achieve painting-hood as soon as possible, with as little reworking for the sake of 'perfecting' the image as possible. So, for me, the great joy in these first few paintings, when I'm a bit rusty and unsure of my process, is how they sort of straddle the line between abstraction and representation.

After all, they are paint first, and images of tornadoes second.

For a bit of background on the encaustic process, read this previous post (below).

Some Great Feedback! And a Note on Encaustic Surfaces

I feel like, sometimes, I ought to have those horrible flashing red and yellow banners on my art site, proclaiming the words that I sometimes get as compliments on my work. But I won't, because it would be tasteless and annoying to do so. At the very least.

I will, however, mention a few of those words here:

Mesmerizing....


The luminosity in them is amazing.


Beautiful and terrifying....


Elegant(!)

The thing I will say about the encaustic paintings -- the surface is gorgeous! Depending on the application of the paint, you can sometimes see down right through the colors. Also, they all look far better 'in the paint' than any digital image of them can possibly convey...

So go see them at the AVAA show, if you get a chance, or come to my studio for the next East Austin Studio Tour (mid-November). Unless they will be shown somewhere else before that, in which case, I will be sure to post about it here and on my website.

Encaustic Paints

Found a good intro to info about encaustic paints and paintings at RF Paints. Click on the title link for more.

This is the kind of painting I've been doing a lot of since late last summer. I absolutely love the process and the effects.