Review Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch DVD

Last night I watched Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch's DVD 'Encaustic Collage Workshop'. I love it when I am able to pick up new techniques from a DVD in the comfort of my studio!

Besides having an excellent introduction in the beginning third of the workshop re tools and using/creating beautiful encaustic paint colors from oil paint and R&F Paint Sticks, the video showed me how to finish off the sides of my encaustic painting panels and how to glue 2 panels together with gorilla glue to get a stacked effect. Patricia also gives a demonstration of how to install eye hooks and wire to make your encaustic painted panels gallery ready!

My favorite demonstrations on the DVD were when Patricia shows how to do paper transfers and rub-ons to add surface interest, how to use an oil stick to highlight texture incised into the wax surface and how to stain the wax with the same proceedure, then in the extras at the end of the workshop she shows her signiture shellac burn with beautiful powder pigmented shellac.

All of her demonstrations were very informative for me and inspirational. I'm looking forward to trying her paper collaging techniques out later this week...

Tristina :)

Submitted to BAG Landscapes Show

On Friday I submitted 4 encaustic wax pieces to the Broward Art Guild's Landscapes show. This is a juried show, so I'm not sure how many will make it in!?!?

One of the pieces I created at the workshop while in NY at R&F Paints...it reminded me of tree bark, so I created 2 other tree bark paintings to go along with it for the show. The 4th is an underwater scene with 20 different layers of wax featuring jellyfish that I drew, colored and transfered onto the wax at different depths.

Below are some pictures of the process; I'll show you the finished piece(s) that get into the show after the opening reception June 4th being held at the new home of the Broward Art Guild at 3280 NE 32nd Street. Very Exciting!!!

This is a detail of the wax painting I did at R&F Paints titled 'Chestnut'.

 Detail of recent wax painting titled 'Birch'. Lots of surface texture here.

 My photo and pictures from the internet of Jellyfish, my drawings colored with Pan Pastels and Colorsoft pencils, and a sample painting I did trying out different media to see what I wanted to put in my final painting.

The underwater painting titled 'Teeming' in process... There are already 5 jellyfish transferred into this picture on different layers of wax! Because the wax was warm when the picture was taken the surface is cloudy. After the painting cures (several days to weeks depending on how many layers of wax there are) the wax layers will become translucent and give the water depth illusion I'm going for.

Hope some of you can make it to the show opening next Saturday from 6-9pm. I will be going straight from the Artist as an Entreprenuer class at ArtServe being given by the Broward County Cultural Division . They will be teaching: Career Planning for Artists, Developing a Brand, Pricing, Understanding Customers, Building a Product Mix, Identifying Useful Resources, Writing a Business Plan, Working with Lenders, A session with Successful Artrepreneurs, etc. It"s not too late to sign up for this class if you are interested...simply register online at www.broward.org/arts and select workshops. The fee is a very reasonable $100 total for 4 Saturday classes (all in June).

I watched a new Encaustic Workshop video today and will give you a review of it tomorrow.

Tristina :)

Feels So Good!

Very exciting to hang my first solo Art Show at Java Boys coffee shop in Wilton Manors today with the Broward Art Guild's Executive Director Gerard Delaney. Stop by anytime to view the artwork on display from now through mid July at 2230 Wilton Drive. Will post when I schedule a Coffee Talk reception!

The Java Boys painting is theirs, other 2 are mine!

Hanging at Java Boys

Very Exciting! I am hanging a show of my PaperScapes (colored paper artwork) and Fossil paintings at Java Boys Coffee House in Wilton Manors today (Wed) through the Broward Art Guild. The works will be up for 4 to 6 weeks and available for purchase. Feels soooooo good to have my first solo public showing!

Here's a peek at a few of the pieces I will have in the show:

 In my kitchen putting on the finishing touches.

 Elements (these colors look Amazing in person!)

 Oceans - just reminded me of being on the water in St Thomas, USVI

 Stormy Fields - this reminds me of an impending storm.

Moon Fields - Samantha thought it looked like being on the moon in this painting.

And, one of my favorites: Lavender Fields. :)

I'll post details re a date / time for a reception so you can come take a look at my work at Java Boys! Look forward to seeing you all.

Tristina

Colorful Hearts and Paintings

It was such a joy Thursday to spend the afternoon with my girls, Samantha and Devon, in my studio. I was making hearts for the Great American Beach Festival being held on Fort Lauderdale beach May 28th while Samantha was doing school work and Devon was reading/helping me with painting.

Here are the results of what I made that day:

I still have lacquer and crystals to add to the hearts, but they will be done in time for next weekend's show.

In the mean time, I have also been working on the paintings that are coming about as a result of the paper coloring I was doing earlier in the week. Here are what they look like so far (I still have repairs to do to holes that inevitably happen as I glue the papers down to canvas):

 Ascention

 Tempest

Field of Poppies



Makin' Paper!

It was a beautiful sunny South Florida day yesterday, so I was outside on my dock watching the boats go by and making colorful sky dyes papers (inspired by Mickey Lawler's book for coloring fabric, 'SkyDyes'). Here's a peek at the process...

The bright sun dries the watery acrylic paints within 2 hours, so I can make more than one batch in a day. Yesterday I made 2 large sheets (22"x30") on rice papers that I had gotten at Utrecht on Saturday and one sheet of 20"x20" on tissue. Over the next few days I will use Golden's Soft Gloss Medium to adhere them to canvases and fill in any tears with NeoColorII water soluable wax pastel crayons. Don't worry, I'll take pictures and show the finished paintings here when they're done!

The Broward Art Guild has a coffee shop sporting blank walls to fill with paintings for sale, so I'm making these to put on their walls for the month of June. Feels good to have my paintings 'out there' for folks to see.

Tristina  :)

Crazy Woman in Michael's!

OK, so the CRAZY woman in Michael's today was ME!!! They are having their 50% off gallery wrapped canvases sale through tomorrow aaaaaaaand I have a 20% off everything (including sale items) Friends & Family coupon, so I went to town buying sale canvases small and large (to stretch myself to work big ;)) and  clearance artist panels.

I also grabbed a few other supplies...and a book! Surprise! Anyway, now that I have my oil paint sticks from R&F Paints I decided to buy "The Encyclopedia of Oil Painting Techniques" by Jeremy Galton as a handy reference guide to grab when I'm contemplating what to do to begin or move to the next level with an oil stick painting. Ahhhh, I can smell the linseed oil already!

Happy Painting to my fellow painters out there!

Tristina :)

Annual Broward Art Guild Brunch Meeting

Tomorrow, Saturday, the Broward Art Guild will hold their annual meeting and brunch at the ArtServe gallery on East Sunrise Blvd in Fort Lauderdale from 10am to 12noon. Looking forward to seeing my artist friends there... :)

Three NEW Books!

It made me crazy 2 nights ago that I came to post the new art books I bought Wednesday on my blog and the blog was down for maintenance! Then it was down yesterday as well with technical issues... Yikes!!!

I am excited to share with you my new book finds from Michaels:

1)   'A String of Expression' - Techniques for Transforming Art and Life into Jewelry by June Roman
              I picked up this book because there is an unusual necklace on the front cover, and when I looked through the inside I found that the necklace projects are each inspired by a piece of beautiful journal collage artwork and poetry!!! June's techniques for stringing, knotting, wire work, charm collage (using resin), leather work, and working with precious metal clay (PMC) (you can substitute polymer clay for the PMC projects) are fresh, aboriginal, colorful, eclectic, doable (inspires "I can do this!") and inviting. I totally GET the subtitle, speaking of  'transforming', after reading through the book...it's spot on! I'm looking forward to doing some transforming of my own soon! :)

2)   'Letter Better' - Doodling Guide by Cyndi Hansen
               With over 280 patterns of letters and creative borders, I grabbed this Design Originals book as a quick inspiration reference for when I want to write in my journal and my regular handwriting is not satisfying me. You know how it is, even though my handwriting may be cool looking to others, I get bored of it sometimes and go straight to my lettering books to get unstuck.

3)   'Zentangle Basics' - by Suzanne McNeill
               If you've never seen Zentangles and like to draw (or even if you've never drawn before and would like to try), this book is a real treat! I first saw an article on Zentangles in a magazine about a year ago and fell in love...It's another way of doodling with a pen or pencil that helps to "reduce stress while improving focus". This Design Originals book contains excellent step-by-step pictures of the process. The contrast of the black and white 'Tangle' design patterns and shading examples have such a powerful impact on me. The book even suggests trying to add to the completed b&w designs colors from watercolors, color inks, watercolor pencils, markers, etc. Sounds like fun...give me a piece of paper and a Micron pen and I'll see ya in a couple of days! Learn more at Zentangle.com

Happy Reading!  Tristina :)

Submitted to BAG Member Show at Coral Springs Museum of Art

I worked into the night to have paintings ready to submit Saturday for the Broward Art Guilds member show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art! (Sound familiar to other artists out there???) I like watching what upcoming shows the Broward Art Guild and Artserve are having as a motivation to, "get the work done!" I feel like this way it gives me a goal or deadline to adhere to and really motivates me to create...

Here are the pieces I submitted to the show from my Ancient Bones series. Each painting starts with my hand colored paper (created with a technique I learned from Edyi Lampasona at a workshop I took at the Boca Raton Museum of Art last year). The fossil stones on the pieces were collected on the West Coast of Florida by me and my parents. They are ancient bones, teeth and ivory from prehistoric manatees, walrusus, horses, sharks and other marine / land animals that lived in the Gulf area millions of years ago. When I was a child I would tell people I wanted to grow up to be a plaentologist (someone who studies fossils). I may not have grown up to collect and display fossils as my primary vocation, and still I have been able to enjoy them as an avocation!

 This set includes bones, coral, teeth and ivory. I love the totem shape, reminds me of piles of stones I saw in Arizona walking through the desert where long gone Indians had marked the way for others.

 This set consists of fossil bones and teeth. The top is my favorite totem design and the bottom reminded me of the impression a bear claw makes in the mud.

 I adore this set with the white ivory fossil that reminds me of a candle flame. The top painting also introduces my use of copper nails and wire. Wire really turns me on and I use it whenever I can in my work.

The reception for the Broward Art Guild show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art is Thursday, May 26 from 6 to 8pm. Hope to see some of you there!

Tristina :)

Got My R&F Paints Order and Submitted Artwork Today

I am sooooo excited! Today I both submitted artwork for ArtServe's (InSIDE)/Out Show and received my order of R&F Paints encaustic wax and oil stick paints. Here are pictures:

 The oil paint sticks fit nicely in the top drawer of my new paper chest on wheels from IKEA.

The box of squares in the right of the pic are encaustic wax bars.

This approx. 8x11 painting is done on a piece of reclaimed wood with a beautiful flower napkin in the background. The buddha I shot at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco last August as well as the image of the Tibetian scroll. Stamps are from Vietnam and were in keeping with the theme of tranquility. Name of the piece is "Prayer for Tranquility". 

Recognize this buddha? Yep, same picture as the one above, only I had it printed on a 24x30 canvas and I painted and collaged over the image. There's a big Swarovski crystal in the middle of his head! I wrote the Chinese characters and hand colored the paper on the right (I grew up in Taiwan and used to practice Chinese character writing in school!). Hair is covered in glass bead gel, which you can't really see from the picture. The name of the painting is "Serene Repose".

 I've been working all day on more artwork to be submitted to a Broward Art Guild gallery show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art tomorrow. I'll show you that work after they are submitted!

Spent a few moments today reading the May/June 2010 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. It is so chock full of excellent ideas, even in the advertisements. I realized I never did finish reading all the articles. I'm so looking forward to what fun I'll learn in those last few articles!

Tristina :)

Finished Embracing Encaustic

Well, it's official, I am addicted to art books and magazines! I began reading 'Embracing Encaustic' by Linda and William Womack on the plane returning from NY on Sunday and finished it this morning.

I like the fact that this is a small sized how-to book. It has a huge assortment of pictures from the artist as well as many many other artists, which I found helpful in order to show different ways that each of the demonstrated techniques for working with encaustic wax can play out.

The authors gave an excellent explanation of how to build texture on the surface of the encaustic painting. I didn't know that you could use joint compound as a way to build up reliefs and cover with encaustic?! Two other techniques I picked up on were to use wax over cheescloth and then remove the cheesecloth to get an interesting pattern left behind and to use acetone to rub on the back of a xerox copy to make a good image transfer (just like I do with polymer clay). The gallery section in the back of the book has a lot of unique work to show the range of use and fuel the imagination for using encaustic; I really appreciated that each contributing artist had an explanation below their artwork explaining what size it is and a general idea of how it was created (i.e. what techniques the artist used to create the finished good).

I highly recommend 'Embracing Encaustic ' to anyone interested in learning the basics of painting with wax and beyond...

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 :)