Category Archives: Encaustic

Encaustic inspiration – free!

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eaicoverHooray! The new FREE issue of ENCAUSTIC ARTS MAGAZINE is online and ready to drool over. If you’ve ever wondered why “encaustic” (incorporating and exploring wax as an art form) is so fascinating, this will give you the answer, big time. You are strongly encourage to subscribe for free if you haven’t already.

Some of the ideas that I stole – er, I mean, was inspired by – in this issue were these intriguing orbs by Jamie Lee Hoffer. The artists says, “The encaustic medium has all the elements that inspire my creativity and push my boundaries.” eaiorbs

Another artist’s works that I found thought-provoking were the books constructed by Erin Keane from Asheville, NC. She writes, “I’m very deliberate in my image making;It’s an odd combination of precision and frenzy. I will construct and contemplate, arrange and re-arrange, until finally pieces fall into place and I am overwhelmed with a visceral response.” Wow.

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There are many pages and photographs of beautiful art in this free online publication. Even if you have no intention of ever melting a block of beeswax, check this out. Read the artists’ statements for a valuable lesson in how to write about your art. ENCAUSTIC ARTS MAGAZINE is published by the Encaustic Art Institute, a national organization headquartered in Santa Fe.

Finally, I would be remiss without once again thanking dear friend Michelle Belto who introduced me to this wonderful world of wax. Here is her national teaching schedule for next year (found on p.130 in the EA magazine) – if you are lucky enough to be able to sign up for one of her classes, do it! Happy reading, happy inspirations!

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Big Ol’ Sale Saturday and more . . . .

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I’m posting my newsletter info to SHARDS subscribers because there’s so much going on in the next couple of weeks at the Studio – take a look and join us if you’re in the San Antonio area.

BIG SALE – I’m very excited about this – Lesta and Alison and I always have a fantastic time, and Michelle Belto will be joining us on Saturday. Her encaustic work has been shown all over the world – you will love it. This BIG SALE will be fun. Date: This Saturday November 28th, time: 10-4, place: my good ol’ Studio. I’ll have tons of new earthenware shards and gifties and Bee Dishes and faces! Please join us for art and Chef Mike’s snacks.

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Aha! – and speaking of snacks, Lesta and I have decided to have an Art Snacks workshop the afternoon of Saturday, December 5th. So what an Art Snack? It’s a project that you can learn and complete in a short time to give as a gift or to keep. Here are some of the art snacks you will make and take that afternoon:

  • A folding votive candle card
  • A hand-painted collaged luggage tag
  • An origami gift tag ornament
  • A bookmark

It will be a fun way to spend some creative time of your own during a very busy season. You can read more about it and sign up here, tuition is $75, all materials included.

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By the way, there are two spaces left in the Wax and Fiber Talisman workshop the next day, Sunday December 6th. This workshop is a bit quieter and more process-focused – check it out.

The next official Show and Tell will be on Saturday, January 30 – yikes, a long time away, but we will have a LOT to talk about. And there may be a little surprise “pop-up” Show and Tell over the holidays – I’ll send out an email in advance.

Please join us at the BIG SALE this Saturday!!

Lyn

Beeswax Wednesday was a great mid-week play break

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Seven intrepid students came to the Studio yesterday afternoon to help me test drive my first mid-week workshop. It was a major success – we waxed out little hearts out and produced some fine collages. Take a look:


I’ve scheduled three more Wednesday workshop for the spring – it seems to be a good day for a lot of people. One good suggestion was to change the time from 2-5 to 1-4 so participants wold miss the rush hour traffic. Thoughts?

We had an interesting discussion during yesterday’s workshop about materials. There seems to be a trend toward letting the materials dictate the process rather than the other way around.  In all my workshops, I try to encourage the simplest materials possible, and the most accessible. That’s why I like yesterday’s Beeswax Collage workshop – you can do it with an electric griddle and two tuna cans plus some clear wax and white wax. And – tah-dah – just add you own creativity! What a concept.

brushes2One of the best non-gimmicky lists of basic, good quality, non-goofy art materials I’ve come across is Jane Davies’ list of favorite materials. True, she doesn’t include basic encaustic supplies, but here’s my short list for the beeswax collage project:

You can leave some of the medium clear and tint some of it with the white paint in separate tuna cans on your griddle – simple. Be sure and follow the safety rules!

 

 

 

Encaustic excitement – Clare O’Neill at the Studio in 2016

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Clare O’Neill “Paulette” Mixed Media: Photography, beeswax, pigments and oils

I’m packing for Round Top and Vivi Magoo this morning, but before I leave, I gotta tell you what happened this weekend. First, there was Monika Astara’s amazing sale on Saturday, and then there was a great meeting of the South Texas encaustic group on Sunday – and then last night, plans for an incredible workshop were finalized with the amazing Clare O’Neill.

It still seems like a dream, but Clare really is coming to teach at my Studio in January of 2016. She has been such major influence in my new work – several artist friends have taken her class on my recommendation and everyone agrees that she is an extraordinary teacher and artist. Here’s a post I wrote during her online class in February. Even at that early stage, I knew I was on to something special with Clare.

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Lyn Belisle: Ava’s Bird

I haven’t announced it yet on my webpage, so you’re the first to know – here are the details (click on the image below for the online version). Two people signed up yesterday, so there are only six spaces left.

If you know you’d like to meet Clare and work with her in person at my Studio for two days (yay!), sign up now. And if you’d like to hold a spot with a $50 deposit, just send me an email.

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Beeswax collage workshop – personal and inspired

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The beautiful visual stories seemed almost to create themselves in Sunday’s Beeswax Collage workshop at the Studio. Participants were given a limited choice of vintage images, some basic collage and texture materials, and some beeswax, walnut ink, and gold leaf. Then, as one person said, “The magic is happening!”

Sunday’s workshop was a delightful combination of the perfect medium paired with the perfect group – everyone had a chance to take risks, make decisions, and turn “mistakes” into assets in their work. And they did it! Take a look at some photos from the workshop.

Congratulations to all of the artist and bravo for the great work – and now, for a commercial break. If you want to see how this beeswax collage process works, I have written an e-book called Behind the Veil that explains this process step-by-step, including where to find free vintage images. It can be yours to download for a mere $5.99 – heck, a fancy latte costs more than that!

But wait, there’s more – no, actually, that’s all for now. It was a great workshop and I thank everyone who participated! Have a lovely  Monday, everyone.

It’s almost showtime . . .

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William Henke’s Uptown Henke Meat Market, now a contemporary art gallery

Michelle Belto and I went to Fredericksburg, Texas yesterday to check out the space for our upcoming duo exhibit at  Dan Pfeiffer’s gallery. The space is an architectural wonder, a 120-year-old meat market which Dan converted into a stunning art gallery.

Dan’s architectural background gave him a reverence for the original structure, and you can see lots of the original trappings of the market, such as the huge meat grinder, which looks kind of like a contemporary metal art object. Dan’s own work is fantastic – carved wood sculptures and furniture that are an amazing blend of artistic form and practical function.

_DSC3746_300ppiOur show is called “Coeur Samples,” and I thought of the name when Michelle first showed me her new sculptural pieces. They resemble blocks of iridescent material that could have come from the heart of a mysterious planet –  and they fit well with my PhotoEncaustic work which samples a moment in time through vintage photographs. “Coeur” is French for “heart” – so, voila – the show became Coeur Samples: Encaustic Explorations. Although Michelle and I have taught together many times, we have never exhibited together, so I hope you can get yourself to Fredericksburg to see our first-time duo show next month. Here are a few photos from yesterday’s visit with Dan at the gallery – we’re excited, and grateful to Dan for hosting our work in this amazing space.

 

I don’t do cowboys – however . . .

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Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived in Texas most of my life, but I tend to regard “cowboy art” as somewhat clichéd. However, I found this great early 20th century photo of a horseman that seemed as if it might work for an encaustic photocollage, particularly after I blurred the background using Photoshop.

Just for fun, I took pictures at every stage of the process, and you can see how it all went together as I worked through it – the finished piece is 16×16″ and is collage and wax on Arches watercolor paper bonded to a birch cradle panel. I might have done a few things differently, but I’m pleased with the result – it’s a new take on cowboy art! Now I just have to figure out a title . . . . “Blazing Saddles”? Nah, that’s taken . . . .

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Monday two-fer – beautiful bones and beeswax

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You get two art reviews for the price of one (yeah, I know, they are all free) but still –  I wanted to post Part Two of my Colorado Trip while it was still fresh in my mind, and I couldn’t wait to show you the video of yesterday’s Beeswax Collage workshop at my Studio (see the amazing video, below)!

Colorado Trip Part Two –  Georgia O’Keeffe at the Colorado Springs Art Center

Horse’s Skull on Blue – Georgia O’Keeffe 1931; Oil on canvas

Georgia O’Keeffe and the Southwestern Still Life is not strictly a “Georgia O’Keeffe show”, (which I should have known had I done my homework before we visited the exhibit). And thank goodness it isn’t, because when her work is placed beside that of her contemporaries – including modernists like Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley as well as more traditional painters who were also lured by the Taos light –  O’Keefe’s cutting-edge brilliance shines.

One of her quotes that ran across a bright orange wall at the CSAC gallery read, “I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at – not copy it.” That, to me, was huge – and her work showed this journey into interpretation and abstraction through the loose structure of “still life.”.

I was so impressed by the juxtapositions and inclusions that I searched to see who had curated the exhibit. It was Charles C. Eldredge, former director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, who placed O’Keeffe’s work in the context of other artists who were influenced by the Southwest at the same time she was. The exhibit raised thought-provoking questions such as “What is a still life, really?” and “How does an artist chose represent an observation?”

I loved the show – my favorite painting was this one (below) – and my friend Carol Mylar and I talked for a very long time about why it was included as a still life, and why its powerful simplicity is so mesmerizing. For a much more educated and detailed review of Georgia O’Keeffe and the Southwestern Still Life, read Gayle Cement’s enlightening, enjoyable discussion of the works.

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Georgia O’Keeffe Black Patio Door 1955

22And now . . . . .Fabulous Sunday Workshop – Wax and Layers and in Beeswax Collage

The smell of the beeswax, the roar of the crowd – what a workshop! Every single participant took the notion of wax enhancement on monochromatic collage and ran with it, creating evocative personal statements. I’ve recently added another hour to my workshop format, and three hours instead of two makes a huge difference. We have more time to critique and discuss – it obviously worked yesterday. Take a look at some of the inspired pieces the students created. Nice work, Y’all!

A guru for digital photocollage . . . and a glitzy Friday Freebie!

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Hallelujah – I’ve discovered the Digital Imaging Evangelist! She’s for real – Julieanne Kost is the “Principal Digital Imaging Evangelist” for Adobe Systems, and she is a wealth of creative inspiration for artists who work with digital images. Like me! – You might know that I’ve been using vintage digital images and encaustic wax in my latest work, like this piece, below.

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“Drifters” Lyn Belisle – Encaustic Photo Collage on Birch Panel, 14×14″

The encaustic part I’ve learned from Michelle Belto and Clare O’Neill – and now I have a new Photoshop guru in Julieanne! She can be your guru, too – she has a ton of great FREE tutorials on her website. Combining, enhancing and altering digital images is an addictive art form – just ask my friend Jennifer Martin, who’s working with me, learning Photoshop and using her own beautiful digital images. So take a look at Julieanne’s tutorials if you’d like to explore the endless possibilities of the art of the digital image.

gold leaf smallDid you notice the small gold leaf accents in the piece above? That’s another technique that you can utilize when you combine wax and photocollage. Here’s a photo from my new eBook, Behind the Veil: Beeswax and Collage, that shows how to use a circle punch to cut the leaf. If you don’t have gold leaf that’s already studio to a backing, watch the free tutorial I made to show you how to manage and use loose sheets of metal leaf.

Finally, the Friday Freebie is a whole packet of paper-backed gold leaf to use in any creative and/or goofy way! If you are the lucky SHARDS subscriber whose name is drawn Sunday night, I’ll send you a package of Simple Leaf by Speedball – your choice, silver or gold. So many creative ideas, so little time – and don’t forget there’s a Show and Tell at the Studio tomorrow from 2-4! TGIF, Y’all…..

 

 

eBook and Friday Freebie

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TGIF, y’all – some of you hopefully downloaded the free eBook I did on Dimensional Collage for the Gaian Soul Retreat on Whidbey Island  in March. And some of you have asked for more information on my new beeswax collage process, especially since last weekend’s workshop was such a success.

3 So – tah dah! I’ve written a new eBook called Behind the Veil: Beeswax and Collage.  The 34-page PDF eBook describes my new encaustic process, gives suggestions for photo sources, and includes a gallery of examples.

This one isn’t free. I’m embarking on my first step toward a publishing empire – yahaha. Only kidding. But I did want to see how selling eBooks online worked, so I figured out how to set up a PayPal button on my website. And this little gem of a book can be yours for a mere $5.99. That’s less than a Double Meat Whataburger! I started to ask $6 but marketing people say do the 99 cent thingy. Here’s the link to my first-ever “eBooks For Sale” page.

beescoverwebadMy friend Rosemary, who encouraged me to get this thing done and out there, just read it and said, “It’s like being in the room with you!  Everything seems to be here, the pictures make it clear.  It’s really wonderful!” My first review! Yay!

Anyway, Behind the Veil: Beeswax and Collage is available on my website, and I will give away a free download as a Friday Freebie to one lucky subscriber to SHARDS, name to be drawn Sunday night.

If you decide to buy the eBook, and something doesn’t work, for heaven’s sake let me know! But so far, so good. Thanks for reading my blog!! Happy weekend.

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