Seven Stars - Watercolor Class

I recently taught a beginning watercolor class at ArtSpace.  These are my graduating students holding their beautiful paintings.  I was immensely proud of each and every one of them who proved that you can paint even if it's the first time you've ever picked up a brush.  Way to go!!!!!

Textured Abstract - Encaustic

This is the last of my encaustic paintings that I'm willing to post.  This one has embedded papers and paint as well as some colored wax on top.  It was fun and I hope to some day pursue this further.  For now, that's the encaustic collection!

Swimming - Encaustic

This is another encaustic I did in the workshop where the technique was embedding.  After laying down several layers of wax and doing some painting on the different layers, I embedded objects into one wet wax layer.  A final thin wax layer was then added to make sure everything was secure and not going to pop off.  Encaustics should be viewed "live".  It's very difficult to represent them accurately in photos.  Once again, these are not great works of art by any stretch, but an opportunity to try a new medium.  With much practice they CAN be beautiful pieces.  Not there yet!  Ha

Flower Power - Encaustic

I just took a weekend workshop in Encaustic painting.  Encaustic is an ancient art form involving painting with melted wax.  This was my introduction and first attempt!  I drew a quickie flower and used colored oil sticks for color.  I melted the colors with a torch and fused them permanently to the board.  The last layer is more non-colored wax which gives a translucent uneven look.  Once everything is fused with heat, it is a very permanent art piece.  No worry about it melting on a hot day (which I asked).  I will show you my other works from this weekend in my next posts.

"The Genius"

Hello Bobby!  Here is one of my favorite poets that I've loved since I was 15 years old.  That was a couple of years ago.  This image is too small to read the calligraphy on the painting, but the words are all from "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (which is the first song I slaved over trying to write each and every word).  I just didn't get it -  I'm still trying to figure him out all these years later.