Summer and Encaustic

Ah summer. There is no easy way to explain the heat generated by all the various heating implements used when painting with encaustic. Suffice it to say, it gets hot in the studio. The answer of course is start early and leave early; my new motto as I paint for my upcoming solo exhibit. Have to keep working or I'll never make the August deadline.

Work is going well. I will never understand why my most creative, productive time occurs in the summer. I don't like the heat and the light is so harsh. Not much to recommend the summer in the South in my book. But I look at it this way. During the cool of the winter I gather ideas, photos, drawings and boom when it gets hot the ideas flow into the paintings. Sounds like a simple answer to me.

The new work is exciting to me. And here is a photo of one of the new paintings in the series.

Summer 2011 Encaustic Workshop

This week I successfully finished three small encaustic paintings with the "feel" I was looking for to translate my mountain experience at Hambidge into encaustic. I have been so in love with my drawings completed during my residency, that it took me two weeks to get back to my usual practice. To say it was a challenge doesn't even begin to explain how hard it has been. Part of the difficulty is the encaustic technique itself. There is a certain amount of preplanning necessary for the images I'm working on and the drawings from which they are inspired were so intuitively and freely created. Of course, as many artists have said before you are never the same artist or person, for that matter, yesterday as you are today. Never was that so true as with the project.

I'm now looking at the solo exhibit in August and the pressure is on to produce more paintings. Although I won't call it pressure because I love having deadlines. There are many times when I need focus for my wandering creative spirit which like to experiment ad infinitum. So here begins my process of deciding size etc. for a twenty or more painting exhibit. Not that many weeks left!

June 18 & 19, Saturday and Sunday are the dates for the summer workshop in encaustic. Visit my website for details. What happens after a residency is a burst of creative thoughts that lead to new ideas that I will share in this workshop. Encaustic is, may I say, an elastic medium.

Residency

It is now time to reflect on the past three weeks. Two of those weeks were spent at a Hambidge residency. This was a remarkable experience that allowed me to work in complete solitude and rediscover myself as an artist. There are many circumstances over the past five years that came between me and my art self and those issues were part of living and were unavoidable but I didn't realize until I had so many hours to draw, meditate, journal and read what cost was necessary to perform the tasks that were required of me.

So here I am happy as can be ready to start a new era in my artwork. Returning to "normal" life is not so easy but the transition is working itself out now. I have incorporated many lessons I learned during the residency to my own studio and my own practice here in the studio. I will continue to assess the rewards received in the coming months.

Above is a drawings 30 x 110 inches titled "Sequence", part of my drawing experience.

Tangled Up In Dreams

It's remarkable to think that I am packed and ready to make my trip to Hambidge for my residency which begins tomorrow at noon. Since before Christmas, when I received my acceptance, I have thought about what I want to do while there for two glorious weeks. This past week I began the process of putting together my supplies and the answer was very clear. I want to draw, to work on paper, to freely work on projects as they create themselves through me.

My decision not to work in encaustic was an easy one because I need time and space to renew myself with my art, to once again get acquainted with myself. If this sounds like a lot of "me me me"...I think it is. There comes a point in a career where you feel you may have lost a little of what you are. Maybe it doesn't happen to everyone but I think that renewal is often the answer when the work starts to come more slowly to feel not so exciting..or relevant.

So in my car trunk is a wonderful assortment of beautiful drawing papers, all imaginable mark making tools and mediums...charcoal, lith crayon, India ink and so much more. I have even thought that I might use some smaller pieces of paper for beginning an artist's book, a project that I've had on my mind for quite some time.

I started reading Twyla Tharps book on creativity and have included in my working tools some of my favorite books of poetry: Mary Oliver, Frerico Lorca, T.S. Eliot...The new memoir by Joyce Carole Oates, and the lovely Louise Bourgeois, Drawings and Observations. The Bourgeois book is always at my side. The Deep Song...resonating with me now.

No cellphone or internet to disrupt my days of musing and drawing. Now, how wonderful is that.

dk Gallery Romance of the Figure Exhibit

This past weekend the "Romance of the Figure and Nude" Exhibit opened, to a crowd I might add. It was horrible weather but nothing stops the dk Gallery collectors and admirers from attending an opening night. New artists were introduced and I loved having my new figure encaustics included in the exhibit. Check out the Marietta Patch for an article "Marietta Square Art Gallery Boon to Local Artists" about the gallery and about me too. Deronte Smith wrote the piece. Though note that my husband's name is Lyn, Charlie is my stepson...both are musicians however. Stop by the gallery while this show is up. Good show.

Griffith Gallery: The Best

Important information I heard straight from Griffith Art Gallery today about how the painting in the Christmas book occured. Rick and Dave Griffith work with Southern Living magazine often and it was their choice to bring the painting to the attention of the staff for the photo shoot. They carefully wrapped the painting for its journey to the photo shoot and made sure that it was then returned to the gallery in good shape. I would never worry about any painting that was transported with their care.

I am one lucky artist to have the professional support of Griffith Art Gallery. For so many years now I can count on their creative efforts to sell my work. And I can just plain count on them...and their wonderful sense of humor that keeps me smiling while I work.

Booth Museum

On Tuesday I took a trip to Cartersville, Georgia, not far from my studio in Marietta. It was my first visit to the Booth Museum. It's a very interesting museum filled with Western art and artifacts. The building itself is striking and the interior is modern and well appointed. One of the chief reasons for the visit was the Ansel Adams photography exhibit. I truly spent almost two hours looking and just taking in the beauty of so many black & white photographs made by the master himself. I think the last time I saw so many of his photographs was on a visit to Carmel before he died. It was also confirmed that AA dried his test strips in a microwave...I saw him do it in the video presentation.

It's hard to explain just how much I am in awe of those stunning photos. One reason of course is that I learned his method of making photographs and processing the film at the Southeastern Center for the Photographic Arts in Atlanta (Neil Chaput et al). My fondest memory of that time was spent in Brevard, North Carolina learning to use a 4 x 5 camera in the rain, hauling my big camera and Majestic tripod around and having Buck Mills as my mentor...I was his only student for the workshop, lucky me.

I do miss the darkroom, the beautiful B&W papers, even the chemicals. There is certainly nothing like that experience now with digital photography even though I enjoy it for its ease of use.

My second reason for visiting the Booth was my presentation and demonstration to the Booth Museum Artists Guild. It was a very positive experience as the group was a good size for a more relaxed discussion and lots of questions and answers.

I must go back for another visit when I can go earlier and stay in the galleries longer. I only scratched the surface.