Category Archives: techniques

Minding my own beeswax

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beacon-hill-art-walkEvery June I look forward to participating in the Beacon Hill Art Walk in Boston – the venerable old red-brick and cobblestone neighborhood opens its courtyards and gardens to over 100 artists for a unique event that includes music and food.

This year, inspired by Clare O’Neill and  the work that my students did in our first Beeswax Collage workshop, I’m including some of my own encaustP1100506ic beeswax collages for show & sale. I’m also developing a new eBook about the process called Behind the Veil – it’s almost ready for publication. And I’ll offer a new workshop on this Beeswax Collage process on July 12th, and another one in the fall, so stay tuned for those things. The new eBook will give you several tips on working successfully with this process, including:

  • Limit your palette, both in imagery and in wax color
  • Work small scale at first
  • Use a good substrate such as Arches #300 watercolor paper

Taking any art to Boston is kind of a challenge because it has to be lightweight, packable, and easy to set up. These collages fit the bill – I’m hoping they will be popular with Boston patrons. Two years ago, my work won a third place ribbon, last year I took home a second place ribbon – maybe these little pieces will snag a first place at the show on June 7th! Here are a few of the new beeswax & collage pieces that are completed. Do you think they will be a hit on Beacon Hill? Fingers crossed 🙂

 

 

Friday Freebie from the land of magic – Dimensional Collage eBook

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Teaching last week at the Gaian Soul retreat on Whidbey Island  was such a joy! Dear friend Joanna Powell Colbert has a gift for bringing together a group of diverse women and weaving them gently into an inclusive circle that is beautifully unforgettable. Heck, Joanna could probably herd cats and make them like it – she’s that magical!

Want to see what the retreat was like? Click this link to go to Joanna’s very cool webpage about our time together. Then come right back, because I have a free eBook for you that will show you step-by-step how to participate in the project that we did – even though this example was specifically designed for the Aldermarsh retreat, it’s personal and fun for everyone and every level.

collageoncanvasbook

Click here to access your free 32 page eBook called Create Dimensional Collage on Canvas – it’s a short and easy version of one of my most popular workshops. You can download it if you like. Let me know how you like it, especially if you make your own Dimensional Collage. Have a wonderfully creative weekend, Y’all!!

Living and learning

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learning copySchool starts for me this week – as a teacher and a student! I go back to Trinity to teach my course in Essential Information Technology, and I’m taking an online photo-encaustic class from Clare O’Neill. The tuition for that one is rather steep, but I expect to learn a lot of new skills in both photography and encaustic that I can pass along to my own workshop participants. (Did somebody say “Old dog, new tricks?” – arf.)

If you’d like to experience an online class, do I have a deal for you! Michelle Belto, encaustic artist extraordinaine, and I have teamed up in an online offering called “Wax and Tissue.” You can see details here at Roses On My Table. It’s a good way to gently discover the encaustic process, and if you take a look at the materials list, you can see it’s not all that complicated. It’s a lot of fun, too – we had a great time making this video.

Online classes are easy to access and view (you get specific easy-to-follow directions) and you can look at them as often as you need to or want to. I like to watch the ones I take in sections so I can have “think breaks” in between.

“Wax and Tissue” has a lot of information (and a certain amount of goofiness – you know Michelle and me) and you can email us questions through the forum with the other students. The course costs $55, which is a *lot* less than the encaustic class I’m taking with Clare O’Neill – and definitely less than my Trinity students are paying for *their* tuition! Lifelong learning in the arts is truly priceless, especially when you can do it in your jammies. Think about joining us – OK, I”m off – gotta head to class!

Jalapeño Cranberry Relish recipe for your Thanksgiving emjoyment

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This stuff is yummy. I got the recipe from our friend, the late, great Arnold Hyman, a jewelry designer here in San Antonio. Arnold is no longer with us, but his cranberry relish lives on  lives on at our table, and, hopefully, at yours.

It’s incredible easy. The recipes follows the photos – hope you enjoy it:

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Arnold’s Cranberry-Jalapeño Relish

1 pkg. (12 0z.) fresh or frozen cranberries

1 whole lime

3/4 cup sugar

1-2 jalapeños, seeded and minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Coarsely chop cranberries in food processor. Transfer to bowl. Cut lime including peel into small pieces–process until finely diced. Add cranberries, sugar, and jalapeño. Mix in cilantro and refrigerate several hours–makes 2 1/2 cups.

(Note: I chop everything coarsely in the food processor – Lyn)

Work, work, work – rust, rust, rust

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handHiya – I’m popping in for a minute to show the latest results from my summer vacation painting month at the Studio – these are the first two in a series called “Sympathetic Resonance.” They are a continuation of my explorations into rust and patina, their color and texture. I love the way these are presented – a craftsman friend constructed heavy cedar boxes that stand by themselves as objects or hang on the wall as frames – either way, the pieces seem to work. The cedar compliments the patinas.If you can’t see the pieces in your email (and if you’re interested), you can look at them in browser view.

Yay! Art is so much fun when things are going well. I am taking a few of these pieces to Dan Pfeiffer’s Gallery in Kerrville next weekend to see if they are a good fit for his space. He is a fantastic woodworker/artist. So I’ll be laboring away on Labor Day doing what I love – hope you will be, too! More soon, happy weekend.

New work, new face, new mix-up

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I’ve just finished work for the Fotoseptiembre show at Northwest Vista College – it’s called Mixing It Up. These two pieces are indeed a mix-up of media – heat phototransfer on fabric with encaustic and mixed media over stretched canvas. My model, Ellis, is a good friend’s daughter whom I’ve known since she was a baby – what a wonderful face. She did a half-hour photo session with me and I was inspired by her expressive eyes to create this duo called “Bound” and “Determined.” (I borrowed the dove in the second piece from my friend, Ramesh, a fantastic photographer who is now on a safari shoot in Africa – I steal only from the best 🙂) This exhibit opens on September 18th, but there will be a celebration of art through photography all over the city. Viva Fotoseptiembre USA! And now, to the Friday Freebie winner . . .


Dani Wildason was the randomly drawn winner of the five-pack TerraSkin mixed-media stone paper. Dani, let me know how you’d like to claim your prize – hope you’ll drop by the Studio and say hi! Speaking of claiming Friday Freebies, Rob in Australia, I owe you a Studio t-shirt! Your name was drawn way back in January – check the end of this post!

Cheesy video, great afternoon!

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Darn it! If only I had remembered to take my video camera to yesterday’s Show and Tell at the Studio – it was the best ever. But I did make a little sampler of some of the presenters with my iPhone – unfortunately, you will have to put up with the “black bands” on the sides and the goofy volume. But it was a blast (see first segment). Thanks to everyone who came, and especially to the diversely talented show-and-tellers – we’ll do it again next month (probably Saturday, Aug. 23rd).

Serenity and Serendipity

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Michelle Belto and I spent a serene and serendipitous day with our workshop group making and celebrating happy artistic accidents (and a few on-purpose creations). We constructed book/boxes with rich collaged exteriors and a space for our Yupo inspiration cards on the inside. We also built a sense of community and retreat as we worked in the Studio space together. One participant said, “I haven’t thought of the outside world all day – I’ve been so focused on my work here.”

When Michelle and I plan workshops together, we want to bring this sense of retreat and contemplation to the experience as well as ensuring that everyone has a finished piece to take home with them as a celebration of their accomplishments and growth. And it worked again with our Book of Serendipity workshop – take a look at the video!

The Book of Serendipity: Belto and Belisle – Saturday, June 28th

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I spent some fine creative time with encaustic guru, author and good buddy Michelle Belto yesterday at her Hot Wax Studio. We experimented in various media with a small group of intrepid explorers. And now – tah-dah– Michelle and I ready to give you the exclusive final details on our June 28th collaborative workshop called The Book of Serendipity: A Celebration of Unexpected Gifts from the Universe! Click on the photo below to read the description – it really has something for everyone – and then sign up to spend a cool (in all ways) Saturday with us at my Studio. All materials and a yummy lunch are included – the day will be a memorable one (you’ll see what I mean when you read the description.) Limit eight participants, absolutely no art experience necessary. Please join us (and invite a friend).

 

Wax Paper Inkjet Transfer Tutorial

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I didn’t have a chance to demo this technique at Show and Tell last Saturday, so here’s a quick how-to. I’m showing this technique on watercolor paper in this tutorial, but it works even better on dampened white cotton fabric. (Because the wax-paper transfer is just ink-jet ink, it will need to be sealed if it’s on fabric or it will wash out.) Here are the steps – click on the pictures below to enlarge, and feel free to share.