Lost Aussie on the loose

Bliss Painting

Now and again, when I am busy I find 5,10 or 20 minutes to just do what I love.

This one will hopefully gain entry to an exhibition in August.   It's a melange of digital and encaustic. Fingers crossed.

An Encaustic Tale

Woodstock, a charming upstate New York town where the locals are laid back and friendly, there's a "certain" perfume in the air and it's really easy to relax :-))

I hooked up with my friend Nancy, to take a 4 day workshop in conjunction with the Center for Photography and R&F Paints.  We stayed at a charming B&B - "The Woodstock Inn" and could not have wished for a more idyllic spot with a top notch Inn Keeper and accommodations to match.

The first two days of the workshop we spent in Woodstock at CPW - printing, messing with cyanotypes and prepping images.

Unfortunately most of what was covered on these two days was not new to me and not quite what I had expected, but I digressed a little from the lesson plan and played with a pinhole camera set-up and enjoyed experimenting with printing cyanotypes on fabric.

The next two days we spent at R & F Paints, working in their fabulous studio.  As I'd already done a workshop with them several years before there was not too much new learning to be had here either but I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend two days dipping, painting and fusing - without having to worry about anything else.

I created some 20 or so pieces over the two days of wax studio time.  Some of them were simply experiments that I had the luxury to do, working in an uninterrupted fashion.  Others are more complete and perhaps require just a finishing touch here and there.

So, here's a selection of some of the work....  in varying sizes and formats.  Most of them 8x8", 7"x7" or 5x7".  The smaller sizes were easier to work as samplers as I fussed with ideas and techniques.

Techniques that I worked on included, basic fusing, pouring, embedding, incising, transfers, painting, collage, layering and texture.

The square pieces are all worked on deep cradled gallery boards.  The rectangular pieces are all worked on flat masonite.

I'll share some more of the work in another post. 

For now though, cheerio and I hope you enjoyed a peek into my waxy adventures!

Away with Wax

I'm up in the wilds of Woodstock (NY), immersed in wax workshop.

I'll probably come up for air in the next day or so and let you know all the fun things that I have been up to.

This sure is the land of peace and contentment :-)

La,la,la,la ..... all I need now is a hippie skirt ...

..... sorry, it must be in the Air!

Happy Earth Day

Hmm...I seem to have Roses on the brain for some reason, not sure why!  Anyway, there's nothing that speaks to the richness of nature and the wonders of the earth much better than the glorious rose blooms to be found in my Mother's garden.  This pic was snapped while I was down in Manjimup earlier this month and even though it was not 'rose season' there was still the odd moment of splendour to be found!
Happy Day Mother Earth....and to my real Mum too, thanks for the giving and the nurturing! ..xoxo

Oh and before I forget, I am off to San Antonio this weekend....it's FIESTA TIME and I hope that DH, the camera and I have a little fun, soak up the sun and get to party a little.

I have managed to update my ETSY store before heading to bed tonight.  There's a couple of new encaustic pieces there as well as some bits of vintage ephemera that I am trying to clear out of the Studio...so feel free to have a browse!

Is It Any Good?

For many of us who potter happily amongst our paints, papers (or pixels) creating works of ART? ....there often comes the point where you want to know if what you create is any GOOD!
And how might that be determined?  Is it just the approbation of your family and friends, is it when you successfully get a piece published in a magazine or is it when your artwork is accepted into a gallery exhibition?
I don't know and I suspect for each and every artist the yardstick of approval is different.

In my case I am tickled to death to have had a number of pieces accepted into different gallery shows over the last 8 months, both locally on Long Island, in Brooklyn and also across the way in California.

For me, the acceptance of my artwork into shows, juried by people who know me not at all, is a particularly important tick in the right box!

That's not to say that the 'scrunched husband face' test does not remain a valid personal indicator of whether or not a piece is any good but sometimes it's nice to know that others who are not near and dear and hold no personal bias share the same opinion about what you do!

Just my thoughts on a quiet sunny morning before I head to the beach......

And if you are so inclined, feel free to comment and share your thoughts on 'validation' and where it comes from for you!

The Firelight Series - inspired by the recent bushfires in Australia is due to hang as part of an exhibition in May at the Long Island Art League.

Taking Away New Skills

The most wonderful thing about having the opportunity to take classes - art or any other kind, is that you put yourself in a place where new skills are presented, different perspectives offered and you can take away as much or as little as you like from the experience.

And while I work predominantly in the digital format, I always like to find ways to incorporate my 'pixels' into the more traditional art canvas...

Today I messed around with some new tips that I garnered from Carla Sonheim's class, using gesso and watercolour paints as an underpining for a digital image transferred to wax and further coloured using my Encaustic paints.

Learning is lovely...any way you interpret it!

Exhibition Exhilaration

In the past two days I've received two wonderful pieces of news...

I have had artwork accepted into not one, but two different gallery exhibitions here in New York.

The first is at the MOCA Inaugural Exhibition of International Digital Art to be held at their Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, Sept 2nd - Sept 18th, 2008.
In addition to the bricks and mortar show they also have an online gallery of all the entries which you can see here.

The second wowza moment was being accepted into the Art Leagues 52nd Exhibition of Long Island Artists with one of my new encaustic pieces being chosen for the show.
Their show runs from Sept 13th to Oct 12th, 2008.

I am sure you can imagine how hog darned tickled pink I am feeling right now!!! :-))))

Tree At My Window

Long before I got caught up in my weird world of Art there was a time when I read (and wrote) poetry constantly.  One of my most favourite poets is Robert Frost.  I love the vivid imagery his words conjure up for me and there are many pieces of his poetry that speak to my heart.

This latest little exploration with my new encaustic paints is my homage to Mr Frost.  I may create in different ways these days, but the thoughts and words still manage to find their way out of my head in some form or another!

Wax Works #5

These past few days I've been focussed on completing my Artsy "to do list", including making 30 sets of front and back photos for a collaborative book project for the Photoartjournals Yahoo Group and then working on pages for Judy Wilkenfeld's book, part of a round robin collaboration.

In between those tasty chores I have continued to experiment with more encaustic pieces.  I really like this medium and it marries well with some of the digital pieces I've been working on lately.  I bought a whole bunch more boards when I was at Dick Blick on Saturday so that should see me set on a wonderful painting binge for sure!

"Written in Stone" is only small, 5"x7"  but it's a good and comfy size to work in, especially as many of the new pieces are rather experimental!