Friday I arrived at Monserrat

My flight arrived 30 minutes early into Logan Airport. I was surprised at how chilly it is up here in New England. Living in South Florida for 15 years has thinned my blood. So I have arrived at the Third National Encaustic Art Conference at Monserrat College of Art located in Beverly, MA.

Since Friday is an open Demostration day, I decided to stop by and say hello to Paula Roland. I have taken 2 workshops with Paula and I encourage everyone to go. You can find the link on this site. Paula also won honorable mention in the show that the college curated.(2 of her 3 paintings are shown in this post)

Here is a photo of Paula demonstrating monotype on her “HOT BOX”. The other photo is of her artwork that is hanging at the 301 Cabot Street gallery

Paula at the Hot Box

2 pieces from the 301 gallery

Going to another encaustic workshop

All set for Monserrat this weekend and I have signed up for Shawna Moore’s art workshop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The workshop will be at the Art Association of Jackson Hole.  The class needs 8 students all paid up and confirmed.As of June 1st, they have only 6 artists paid and 2 with reservations. My concern is that I have non-refundable airline tickets and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the last 2 artists confirm their reservations. They will not host the workshop with less than 8 students. Since I am traveling from South Florida I needed to book my flight early as there are no direct flights to Jackson Hole from South Florida and flights fill up quickly. So if anyone is interested, please check out Shawna website at www.shawnamoore.com (she has a link to the Jackson Hole site) or www.artassociation.org. I am keeeping my fingers crossed that this workshop is a go.

All set for Monserrat

I just finalized my travel plans to attend the National Encaustic Conference in Monserrat. I can’t wait. I have not done any work in the studio since last November. Since I have a full-time non-art career that has been taking up ALL of my time. So I hope that this trip will get me back into the studio.

Thanks Shannon

Thanks to Shannon from www.beeswaxteam.com for introducing herself to me. She has a group of artists that work in encaustic and sell on Etsy. Thanks for letting me join and very interesting site. I hope to be participate in some of their activities come the New Year. Since I work in retail, this is the busy season so I have little time to work on my art. During the holiday season I end up working what feels like 2 months in a row. And it takes my until Feb. to recover from Black Friday. I am already having nightmares about that day. If shoppers think it is hard to stand on line and shop. Think how hard it is for the retail employee. I work about 17 hours that day after cooking thanksgiving, cleaning up, getting up at 5am to get to the store by 7, open the registers, open the doors at 8 and shoppers are waiting outside. I am lucky if I have time to go the bathroom, let alone get home for dinner and then get up on Saturday and do it all again. It is sheer madness. You see, I was writing about the beeswaxteam and I am already consumed with Black Friday.

Size doesn’t matter…

The local art guild had a call for artists for abstractions.  So I had worked on a small piece (8×10) and entered it. Of course, my husband always thinks that to show your work it has to be BIG. So as usual we had a LOUD discussion of which piece to enter. (just for the record, I didn’t ask him which piece, I picked one and he pointed to another in the studio and said how about that one the rest is the LOUD discussion) I always tell him that art is about content and not size. I remember in school, I would be so angry at the kid who asked the teacher after giving a writing assignment would have to ask how many words does it need to be. I always felt that I had to work at that persons standard and not my own.  I was always of the belief that it is about content and not how long the essay is. Same for me about art. My instinct told me to select and enter the small piece and I did. I won a judges recognition for my piece. I was so happy.  I am more proud of this piece because it is representative of my art style and also because the Juror mailed me a letter thanking me for entering with his critique. The last exhibit I won 3rd place and money, but the letter from the juror meant so much more.  This work is on display until Oct 4th at  Art Expressions Gallery, 1438 NE 26th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33305

Staycation + Teaching=Creativity

I have been so busy on my “Staycation”. I started teaching classes in my study and working on a new series of work. While setting up my studio for classes,  I started to make tests boards, which led to my next series of work. Now that I am set up for “teaching” mode my creativity has kicked in. I guess when I see everything out and all “neat” it inspires me to work. Of course I made such a mess, that I had to “re-clean” the studio for the class. But tomorrow it is back to my “real” job, so I need to make the most of this creative time. The photo is of my new series (still trying to name it) made from beeswax/powdered graphite/encaustic pigment.

I entered an art show and…

I entered the Broward Art Guilds Juried Art Show-”In the Mix” and I came in 3rd place. I have been happy all day. I dropped off 2 pieces on Sunday and was given a receipt with a phone number to call back on Wednesday to see if my work made the cut. So this morning when I awoke, I pulled out the number, but afraid of rejection, I told myself that I will call at 3pm (why ruin my morning if it was bad news) at 1pm the phone rang and from the caller ID I knew it was the guild but I decided to let my voice mail get the call (why receive rejection in person when voice mail can do it). Now anyone that knows me, the Type A personality that I am, I have no fear. I a run a multi-million dollar division of a major corporation and deal with people all day, the good, the bad and the ugly. But this was different. So I retrieved the message while holding my breath, to find out that it was a congratulations call and one of my pieces titled “A Train” came in 3rd place. I have been smiling all day. This Saturday is the gallery reception and originally I was to be out of town, but my plans changed and I will be able to attend. Did I say I have been smiling all day!!!! You can view my work here or please visit the gallery this Sat. July 19 from 6-8 (the work will be on show until August 23rd)

Leche-VItrines Art Alliance (it is on the second floor) SE corner of Oakland Park Blvd and Federal Hwy (US1) you can also go to www.Browardartguild.org or www.lechevitinesart.com for the address.

Stop bye and see the other artists work.

Heat Gun Vs. Blow Torch

I had been wanting to use a propane torch to fuse my work, so today I went to home depot and $25 poorer I now own a blow torch.  I let it sit in the package all day, as I have to admit, I am a bit afraid of the thing.  Two days ago a house in my community had a fire (no one was hurt) and when I was 14 yrs. old the gas grill at my house singed my hair/eyebrows and lashes (my brother went to light it but I guess there must have been fumes so it made a big fire ball when he lit the grill) and then 2 weeks later I caught my sleeve on the stove and it caught on fire (I grew up in a house with an industrial range before they were in vogue that had huge gas jets) I now only have electric in my house, stove oven and all. So this Torch is a huge leap for me considering my bad experiences with fire.

So I went outside on my patio, with a fire extinguisher, removed any items that looked flammable, locked the dog inside and after many attempts finally got the torch ignited. I took a few sample of boards that I prepped outside to test. One panel caught on fire because I had some paper that was stuck in the wax so it flamed up, the others went okay, the problem being- I could not see the flame.  A few more attempts and then I decided back to the heat gun. Since my studio is in my den; I can’t use the torch inside. I can see the practical use if I was working on a very large surface as the flame fuses fast and even. But for right now I will stick with my heat gun

Any one have an suggestions on the torch let me know as I am sure with practice I can get the hang of it and not hurt myself or anyone.

Off to another encaustic workshop

It has been a challenge for me to find time at home to do any artwork. I just cleaned out my studio space and rearranged my hot plates so I hope this configuration will work better for me.  I also just sent out my check to the Atlanta Artists Center to take a one day encaustic workshop. These workshops always help me to kick start a project and I can concentrate on just the work. Since my studio space is in my house, I have so many distractions. The TV, phone, dog, laundry, dishes, etc… So I find I have to fly away to be able to work.  If I could find affordable space I would rent it. The Miami art district has space but it is to far to travel to and many of the art lofts do not have adequate ventilation for encaustic work. I also like to go to the workshops as I hope in the next year or two I can offer these workshops in South Florida.

New Monotypes

Just finished a group of 3 monotypes. I used metallic encaustic so I am calling this group “Gold Rush”  They are small pieces 8×11 and they are done on Rice Paper and mounted on wood panels. The photo’s don’t show the “shine” & “matte” areas. Since the encaustic medium is on both sides of the paper, when I polish the artwork, the areas that have encaustic medium create a high gloss shine when buffed.