Linda Womack Inspires Me!

About a year ago I took an Oil PaintStick and Encaustic painting class in Kingston, NY at R&F Paints with a fabulous Artist and Teacher, Lisa Pressman. What an excellent experience that was to be inspired by and surrounded with such dedicated and talented people and...all the paintsticks and encaustic paint I could get my hands on! While there I purchased a great little book, "Embracing Encaustic", by Linda and William Womack. Wow, if you are curious about working with Encaustic Wax in your paintings, this is the perfect tool for you!!! Here are some of my 4in x 4in cradled boards painted with encaustic wax techniques from Linda's book:

 from 'Adding Texture' chapter

 from 'Incising Lines' chapter

 from 'Collage with Wax' chapter

and, this is my own creation taking the incising lines to the next level using Liquid Pencil potted water soluble graphite to fill the incised lines and give the surface of this painting a shiny depth only the graphite can give. :)

I just checked out Linda Womack's workshop website to see what she has going on. She has AWESOME online classes for all levels of encaustic wax painting! There is a fee for these classes (well worth it in my opinion), but you can get an inspirational tour of her studio for free by simply following this link: http://www.womackworkshops.com/about-the-teachers/.  Just watching her studio tour I was inspired to see her INSPIRATION JOURNAL (gonna have to start me one ASAP!!!) and the beautiful nature books she uses to gain insight into ideas from Mother Nature for shape / color / texture to go in to her paintings.

Thanks Linda for sharing your excellent tour! Look forward to seeing you in one of your internet classes soon.

Happy Fusing! :D    Tristina Dietz-Elmes

So Excited About Encaustic Supplies!

Yesterday I received a box of Encaustic Wax painting supplies from R&F Paints!

I know, you must be thinking, 'How do you paint with wax?' I thought the same thing, too, and have had my interest piqued lately with many articles in art & craft magazines / books including this painting medium. What I discovered in the 'Encaustic Art' book that I am currently reading (by Lissa Rankin) is that wax has actually been found preserved as a painting medium in Egyptian Fayum portraits from as far back as the first century BC!

I've also been inspired to use wax in my mixed media paintings lately from watching the DVD 'Encaustic Techniques' by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. Hence... this latest R&F Paints order. Some of my "Fossil Bones" series paintings have encaustic medium painted over my own hand-colored papers before glueing/nailing on the petrified bones. I ordered the new encaustic products to take working with the medium to the next level with some of the techniques found on the DVD. I'll let you know how it goes...