Bitten by the Bug!

It doesn't happen to me very often...I've read the gambit of art how-to books. Interesting, fun, a few ah ha moments here and there... But, I've become obsessed with the projects in the new book I just got in Michael's last week called, "Flavor for Mixed Media" by Mary Beth Shaw.

Below are the 3 pieces I created from Mary's first project in the book, "Painting Without Paint" (all on 12x12 Clayboard done together in a left to right series):

There's something about drippy drips that totally turns me on!

This book is filled with so many new techniques I haven't thought of using before, although I have all the supplies in my studio already. Mary Beth has me digging up my dusty dry pastels, slopping on the gesso, re-pumping my DecoColor paint markers, and using my luscious acrylic/alcohol inks in whole new ways! Her illustrations of the steps involved with creating her ethereal abstract paintings are spot-on and really have stretched my creative muscle. I have been painting almost non-stop (except for the trip to Pearl Paint and Utrecht to buy more supplies) for the past 4 days. HEAVEN!!!

Even though I have heard taught to me before (as I'm sure you have, too) to lay FAT  OVER  LEAN when painting with multiple painting mediums, I never really got it until Mary Beth showed and explained it to me in her book. She gave me cause to break out my fancy silky Sennelier oil pastels and dry highly-pigmented Pan Pastels and smoodge them all over the top layer of my new (paint-less) paintings...Fascinating.

I will have more paintings to show you from later projects in Mary Beth Shaw's book when I put the finishing touches on them. Happy Painting!  Tristina

Blew Through Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch's 'Encaustic Workshop'

I love artist and author Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch's book 'Encaustic Workshop'.  She uses R&F Paint products for her in-book demonstrations. Because of my time spent at R&F Paints last week, I was able to blow through her book with a knowingness and frequent ah ha's as to new ways to use encaustic wax paints.

Patricia has a no-nonsense way with a big dash of experimentation thrown in. She goes through the basics of working with wax paint in the beginning of the book, so that even someone who has not worked with the medium before will get a good education in how it works. Then, she cuts loose with example after example of how to use a bunch of multi-media techniques with the wax, including embedding papers and organic matter, scraping back the surface layers, incising & painting the surface, and even using alcohol inks to color the paintings.  I work with alcohol inks now to color my ultra-light polymer clay hearts and adore the mix of colors I get...will have to make me some of the thin panels to practice on. Patricia's pictures in the book are fabulous! I am a very visual person and her pictures helped me blow through the book faster...

In the end biography of 'Encaustic Workshop' Patricia says, "I will never grow tired of this medium, as it offers neverending possiblilites in experimentation and discovery." You can find out more about Patricia and her classes at http://www.pbsartist.com/.

Tristina :)