Slipped and Fell In Love with Oil

I HATE TO WAIT FOR PAINT TO DRY! In the past, I always shied away from painting with oils in lieu of faster drying water based mediums like acrylic paints and all the fabulous water soluble products on the market today like Gelato's (from craft stores) and InkTense blocks or NeoColor II wax crayons (from art supply stores). Since I like to heavily layer my work, to me painting with oil was excruciating as I set my work aside for sometimes weeks before the paintings were dry enough to work over.

Well! In come Gamblin Paint Co's FastMatte fast drying oil paints...

My Gamblin FastMatte Oil Paints stash!

These beautifully pigmented oil paints contain just enough alkyd resin to dry for the most part overnight, or when I use them more thickly, then in 2-3 days. I always like to attack my canvas or wood boards with color by making an underpainting (giving me a running start to my artworks) and the FastMatte paints do the trick to move me forward with my paintings lickety split.

Some of my FastMatte oil underpaintings on canvas pads.

Plus, the FastMatte paint is tacky enough when freshly applied to the work surface to take one of my favorite mixed media items, transfer foil! Been luvin' on the Pebeo Mirror Foil lately. Here is one of my recent paintings, "Mangoes", made with all Gamblin FastMatte paints and mirror foil. The background was already dry when I painted the mangoes and leaves on a Monday...and submitted the dry painting to a show that same week Saturday!

'Mangoes', Oil Paint on Wood Panel, 12in x 12in, 2014

Gamblin also has deliciously smooth oil painting mediums which help to speed drying time that I have been experimenting with this year. Because I'm a "texture" girl, my favorites are Galkyd Gel (they like to call it G-Gel) and Cold Wax Medium. The G-Gel gives a smooth, somewhat shiny, textured surface finish and the Cold Wax Medium gives a stiffer matte finish, both of which cause the oil paints to dry faster than oil paint alone and still maintain a robust final paint film. 

Now I feel EMPOWERED to PAINT IN OIL and use the luscious tube oil paints and R&F Oil Pigment Sticks that have been hanging 'round my studio calling out my name!

Check out your local art supply store or online for Gamblin FastMatte oil paints and oil mediums. And, leave a message below if you would like a private or group lesson in Fast Painting with Oils!

HAPPY  ARTING!  Tristina :D

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 :)

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 R&F and the Encaustic Art Book!

 The perfect ending to a fantastic workshop visit to R&F Paints...I got to spend the day yesterday learning about ecaustic wax painting from Lisa Pressman and had a whole day to myself today in the workshop focusing on working with encaustic paints. One of the things that Lisa said about working with encaustic is that, "It's all about the heat." So true; I got to experiment with that today using both the butane torch and multi-temp heat gun. Here's the result of what I worked on yesterday and today:

My encaustic wax paint pallet. The wax is heated to about 200 degrees.

The brushes are kept on the hot plate or the bristles go hard in 30 seconds!



 The painting standing up is my finished 'tree bark' work. Others are in progress...

Detail of tree bark work showing black lines and pinholes filled with graphite.

The opaque areas will turn translucent as the wax cools and hardens.

Here's a piece in process. Will finish at home...

 I'm placing a photograph I've roughed up with sandpaper and coated with wax medium onto a large panel.

 Here's my peeling paint and photo painting in progress... Will finish at home.

Detail of painting with photo I took in Antibe, France a few years ago.

 It's so wonderful that R&F has available all the paint colors and tools for working with both oil paint pigment sticks and encaustic wax paints as part of their class/studio fee. I got to play with all the colors I wanted for the past 4 days! I met so many talented and inspiring people at the workshop (Dayna, Ian, Leslie, Serena, Kitty and Irene) as well as the folks who work at R&F (Richard, Pamela, Darren, Laura, Kelly, Kristin, Melissa, Sienna and a few others). I even bought 2 new Encaustic books and 5 DVD's, so will be giving you those reviews as I read/watch them!

 Today I also finished the 'Encaustic Art' book by Lissa Rankin. Loved the last several chapters discussing how different encaustic artists store, pack and ship their paintings as well as a discussion of how to educate galleries about encaustic if they are not familiar with the medium. I even read the last page with a short bio on Lissa and in the very last sentence it gave a web site address for sharing resources, education, how-tos, photos and creative inspiration for encaustic artists: www. EncausticandBeyond.com. This book was great to the very last sentence!!!

No Time for Reading, Time for DOING!

Hello Friends! Been having a blast at the Lisa Pressman fine art workshop to learn to use oil paint pigment sticks at R&F Paints in Kingston, NY. This is really NEW to me, since I have only ever worked with water soluable oil paints doing crafty things with my girls. Lisa has us working on LARGE sheets of paper and multiple canvas panels at once; both things that are a stretch for me. I came to the class to learn to use my WHOLE  BODY to paint with aaaand to get in touch with my PASSION and put it down with paint.

Lisa's style is very much it's OK to have fun and play. Boy, am I having FUN!  ;)

Here are a few pics from the class:

 R&F Paints factory, showroom, gallery and workshop.

This oil painting is done on thin textured rice paper. There is a piece of 140 lb watercolor paper under it to soak up excess paint oil that seeped thorough the rice paper (and there was a lot of it!).  Size about 26"x34".

It was a challange and very freeing at the same time to work BIG.

I also made another large paper painting of Lemons, but think after it dries I will have to cut it up into 3 or 4 smaller works. Hmmm, Lisa has gotten me thinking and it's a good thing!

Tristina :)

Submitted Today to Broward Art Guild Show

Wow! I was up till the wee hours last night finishing several pieces that I took today to submit to the Tri-County Art Show sponsored by the Broward Art Guild. Below are pics of the 5 pieces I submitted and some of the folks helping me to sign my pieces in, Nancy and Marlene.

"Serene Repose"

This is painted in acrylics over a photograph I took in San Francisco. I hand painted and colored the paper on the right. The dot in the middle of Buddha's forehead is a massive sparkly Swarovski crystal. Size 18x24

"Sunset Harbour"

I loved the way my acrylic hand colored paper came out, so I mounted it straight to canvas...very powerful. Size12x14

"Enchanted Forest"

My acrylic paint hand colored paper gave me the impression of light in the late afternoon playing between the trees. The trunks and leaves are textured acrylic. Size 16x20 See the detail below. 

"Mad Balloons"

Here my acrylic hand colored paper was punched out into circles and embedded in layers of encaustic wax. I love how bright and happy this piece is! Size 5x7 on wood panel.

Detail of the sides showing the wax drips is below.

"Daffodillia"

Another encaustic wax painting using a real US postage stamp and my own acrylic hand colored paper. There's lots of texture and depth in this one! Size 8x8 on wood panel.

Side view showing the wax drips is below.

The common thread among the artwork I submitted today is all have my acrylic hand colored paper in them somewhere...I hope at least one of my pieces is accepted for the show!

I have rarely seen encaustic wax paintings in Florida because the extreme heat can melt the wax, therefore encaustic paintings here have to be very carefully kept in cool temperatures and out of direct sunlight. It only takes 160 degrees or more to melt the wax, so no leaving them in the car either!

I have been reading a lot of the "Encaustic Art" book in an effort to have it done before I go up to R&F Paints this coming week to take a 3 day mixed media and oil paint stick workshop in Kingston, NY. R&F is famous for manufacturing a large line of encaustic wax paints and oil/wax paint sticks. I'm going to learn so much there! I'll be sure to share what happens there...

Tristina