"Pear Mail" Series

The other set I created for the Oregon Society of Artists show are done in watercolor with clear encaustic on top. The boards are Claybord Aquabord. The surface is more absorbent in order to use water media more easily.



Since we were supposed to paint a series, I started with 1 pear and added on. I had a hard time thinking of a subject. We had a bowl of beautiful pears on the table so I started with those.



After I painted the watercolors, I looked at them for a few days. They were OK, but not really thrilling me. Did I want to hang them on my wall? I felt they were a little bit boring.



At the same time, I've been reading a couple of books on mail art. Oh my goodness - Pear Mail! Get it - P-air Mail. That's it! I added postage stamps, ink stamps and imagined sending the pears off to foreign lands: Spain, France, Germany and well, San Francisco. They are finished with 2 layers of encaustic medium.



Numbers 3 and 4 were purchased by an Oregon Society of Artist member before the show even opened! The other two are listed for $20 each.

Oregon Society of Artists Small Treasures Show

"The Road to Starbucks" Numbers 2, 1 and 4

I dropped off my art for the OSA Small Treasures show yesterday. They'll have over 150 sets of four 6 in by 6 in paintings in every media. The show runs October 31st through December 3rd, 2010. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1 - 4 pm, closed on Monday. I'll be "sitting" as an attendee on Saturday, November 20.

Here's number 3 of my abstract encaustic series, titled "The Road to Starbucks:"


I'm sorry about the poor photographs. I just shoot and go. The real colors are not as strong nor as dull as they might appear online. These have embroidery thread, Pearl-ex sparkle powder and seed beads mixed in with the encaustic paint. The title is derived from the fact that "Starry Night" was already taken (smile.) Actually, they are intended as abstracts and were painted rotated 90 degrees to the right. They obviously can be turned in any direction one likes. Listed for $20 each.

Portland Open Studios - Weekend 2

We enjoyed visiting the Open Studios during the second weekend.
Chuck Sites' work is beautiful and technically striking. He uses encaustic on tempered glass and aluminum. http://www.chucksitesstudios.com/

I stopped by Bridget Benton's studio and finally bought a few pieces. An encaustic work, a printed piece and a photograph of a set of encaustic tiles. I'm really enjoying having them around. http://eyesaflame.blogspot.com/

Both of these artists will be influencing my work for a while. It's unavoidable.

Portland Open Studios - Weekend 1

I managed to make it to one studio this weekend. Kevin Noonan (see a link to his Flickr set on the sidebar.) works out of a studio on SE Division. He has some lovely large size encaustic portraits - large brushstrokes of color. He also has a great collection of large oil paintings of icons (Lincoln, Nixon, etc.) and pop art.

There are still two days left: October 16 and 17. Here's the website: portlandopenstudios.com

We had family in town this weekend, but I hope to see more next weekend. Bob even promised to go with me!

What did we end up with?

"Transformation", 6 in x 6 in, Encaustic, Pen and Silk on wood.

I used a cheese slicer to scrape off some of the top layers of wax. That's a fun tool to use!

This is the style:


So, anyway, my plans are not working out very well. I cancelled my "show" - I hesitated to start on the larger works and now my regular work has gotten very busy.

I don't have much energy due to health issues. I read a lot about artists who push through no matter what - work into the night if they have to, so on and so forth. I admire that, but I really only have so much energy. I have a lot of bills to pay and weight to lose. I can't let that stuff slip much more or we will be in trouble.

Art is still interesting to me, but I'm cutting back on some of the projects I want to do. I'm going to keep trying to get a workable schedule figured out so there is some time for it.