never to be forgotten

never to be forgotten
encaustic and mixed media
8×10 inches

Thank you to everyone who left me a kind note of congratulations on the article for Somerset Studio here and over on Facebook. I really appreciate it and I am so happy to have been given the opportunity to write the article. My hope is that it will inspire people to try this versatile medium.

When I set out to create “Never To Be Forgotten” for the article I wanted it to demonstrate several different methods of using imagery and collage with encaustic. This painting contains both embedded imagery and transferred imagery. The flower bud is a black and white photocopy of a photograph I took many years ago. I use this flower bud often in my work. I am sure it looks familiar. I dipped the paper in encaustic medium in order for the wax to really penetrate into the fibers of the paper. The paper was then fused onto the substrate with additional encaustic medium.

The middle panel also contains an embedded piece of paper, this time a piece of dictionary paper. After the dictionary page was fused onto the panel, I brushed on a layer of white encaustic paint. I still allowed bits and pieces of the printed text to show through the layer. And then I decided, hey, I kind of like that bee, and so using a ceramic tool, I scraped through the layer of white and excavated the bee image.

The bottom right image is a transfer of a black and white photocopy. And at the very top of the right side is a collaged piece of torn paper, embedded in wax medium as explained previously.

Other techniques in this piece include drawing or inscribing into the wax with a pin tool and then filling in the lines with oil paint, wiping off the excess, then fusing. I have several layers of different blue and green encaustic paint as well, that I allowed to peek through here and there.

And that is a basic outline of different techniques one can use with encaustic. Isn’t that fun?

“Never to be Forgotten” became a memorial piece to my father as I worked on it. Painting has always been a way for me to work out events and emotions in my life. My father passed away this April and I had to create the pieces to accompany this article in May. In this piece and the ones that I hope to demonstrate, you may see me grappling with the loss. But the intent is never heavy, just a means to come to a peaceful resolution within.

I have to say that when I opened up the magazine to my article, seeing this piece printed at full bleed just made my heart fill, remembering the emotions that went through when I created it.

Go get yourself an issue! There’s a really great article in there about Jesse Reno, whose work is just fantastic.

Thanks for visiting!