Getting Muddy – using Drywall Mud for Texture

Posted on by
Reply

I really enjoy texture in abstract paintings.  In my past large-scale acrylic abstracts, I used a combination of raw canvas pieces and acrylic modeling paste applied onto my canvas to build up the base texture.  Once the texture was dry, I could paint with acrylics paints and mediums and not have to worry about the texture cracking or flaking off the canvas.

"Whirlpool" by Alexandra Reid

I wanted to have this same texture with my encaustic paintings, but without the added expense of having to build up such a deep surface of wax first.  I had been reading about the use of plaster with encaustics, both from an encaustic artist point of view (Daniella Woolf – ‘The Encaustic Studio’), and from plaster artists’ point of view (Stephanie Lee & Judy Wise – ’Plaster Studio’).

The Encaustic Studio - Daniella Woolf

Plaster Studio - Stephanie Lee & Judy Wise

The plaster artists’ approach intrigued me, since they used acrylics paints (already have loads) and drywall mud (lots on hand from my husband’s building projects), with a final top coat of encaustic.  I wanted to see if I could get my heavily textured abstract with the buttery richness of encaustic (and not break the bank!).

I decided to make a diptych (two panel painting) – the paintings could be stand-alone, but would work together as a complimentary pair, both color-wise and texture-wise.

First step, to spread a thin layer of drywall mud (pre-mixed wall plaster).  I really enjoy this step – it feels like you’re frosting a cake.

Spreading the drywall mud onto wood panel with spatula.

Once the mud was spread out evenly with the spatula, I used a trowel (from Home Depot) that is meant for applying adhesive for ceramic tiles.  It had quite large, square teeth giving a nice set of parallel grooves in the mud.  I used a second trowel with smaller, triangular teeth to create a finer set of lines in the mud.

Combing lines through the wet drywall mud with a trowel.

After creating very linear patterns in the mud, I wanted to break up the uniformity of the lines by imprinting circle patterns.  I used a set of circle cookie cutters (set of 3, different sizes).  I twisted the cookie cutter to get a wider circle impression in the mud.

Making circle impressions in wet drywall mud with a cookie cutter.

I repeated the same process with the drywall mud, trowels and cookie cutters on the second panel, but in a different design.  I left the panels to dry for at least 48 hours to make certain that the plaster had cured.

Wood panel number 1 with textured drywall mud.

Wood panel number 2 with textured drywall mud.

Once dry (at least 48 hours), I started to coat the panels in a base coat of red acrylic paint, adding a bit of water to it in order to have it spread more evenly into the plaster grooves.

Watered down red acrylic paint used as a base coat over the dried plaster.

Next, I used a complementary wheel color, green to contrast to the base red coat.  It was really different for me to work in acrylics again after working for the past year in encaustics – the acrylic paint stayed wet!  But, this allowed me to create nice blends of color and tone-on-tone that I hadn’t quite mastered with encaustic painting.

Color wheel complementary green acrylic paint mixed wet on wet over red base coat.

I let those colors dry and then brought out some metallic acrylic paints that I thought would really make the texture pop.  I stayed with the warm tones, and choose copper and gold colors.  I mixed the metallics into the reds and greens, but felt that the iridescence was lacking.

Next I used the copper and gold directly onto the painting as highlights.  Now, the texture was defined with the highlights and shadows of the complimentary colors.

Copper and gold metallic acrylic paints used to highlight texture.

Happy with my acrylic painting, I prepared the clear encaustic medium (EM) for the final top coat.  I brushed a thin layer of melted EM across the grooves.

Clear coat of melted encaustic medium brushed on as a top coat.

I now noticed a potential issue with a textured surface and encaustic painting – the wax pooled into the grooves and started to level them off, becoming cloudy in the process.  Not a look that I was going for!

Cooled encaustic medium has remained in grooves and turned cloudy.

I tipped the wax coated panels at a 45C angle and slow melted the excess wax off the panel.  I had to rotate the panel a full 360C to keep the wax from puddling into the grooves.  Finally, I had the clear, transparent glow of encaustic with the colors of the acrylic painting show through.

Thin layer of encaustic medium over acrylic paints on textured plaster wood panels.

I called the finished abstracts, ‘Moons of Mars’ I and II.  The colors and the circle shapes suggested the alien landscape of a faraway planet.  You can visit my finished works at my online Etsy store, ‘Lexi Reid Studio’.

'Moons of Mars I' by Alexandra Reid

'Moons of Mars II' by Alexandra Reid

Evolution of an Ugly Duckling

Posted on by

The Wyndham Art Supplies in Guelph announced its Annual Silent Art Auction (the proceeds go to send children to subsidized Art camp and classes), with this year’s theme “Endangered or Extinct.”  The store donated 50 10″ x 10″ wood panels on a first come, first served basis.  I managed to snag a panel and was inspired to go the extinct route – all the way back to the dinosaurs.

The fossil I had in mind was of the Archaeopteryx, a feathered flying dinosaur, that some hypothesize is a possible link between the dinosaurs and birds (dinosaurs didn’t become extinct; they just evolved into chickens…).

Archaeopteryx fossil - Berlin specimen

I printed one of the fossil images onto tracing paper, trying to decide whether I would imbed the image into the wax (straightforward) or do an image transfer (more tricky).  I went with option C, trace the image on the reverse side with a graphite crayon.  I wanted to try this technique after reading about it in Daniella’s Woolf new book, “The Encaustic Studio.”

The Encaustic Studio by Daniella Woolf

After tracing over the image with the graphite crayon, I burnished the image onto the prepared encaustic wax surface with a bone folder.  I had used earthtone colours of wax to give a ‘fossil’ tone to the panel.

Graphite crayon used on reverse of fossil image on tracing paper.

Bone folder used to burnish the graphite tracing onto the encaustic wax surface.

The image transferred perfectly!  These was really easy to do and opens up the door to transferring gesture drawings or other sketches to future encaustic works – but first, I need to focus on this piece.

Graphite tracing image transfer onto encaustic wax surface.

I sealed the graphite transfer with a layer of clear encaustic medium (EM) to prevent it from becoming smudged.

Clear encaustic medium used to seal the graphite image transfer.

Next, I scratched through the graphite image down to the base of the wood panel.  Following the grooves of the incised surface, I filled the scratched area with brown oil paint.

Scratching through the graphite image to the base wood surface.

Rubbing brown oil paint into incised image in encaustic wax surface.

The excess oil paint was removed with a paper towel and linseed oil, leaving a clear image of the fossil in the wax.

Archaeopteryx fossil image in encaustic wax.

Using some collage elements, I started to build a nest for my ‘bird’.  I used pieces of dried grass (taken from the woodlot across from my house), eggshells (from breakfast, cleaned and with the membrane removed), and my favourite encaustic collage element – feathers!  These were all added around the central fossil image with clear EM.

Building a nest from collage elements - dried grass, eggshells and feathers.

After several layers of wax, my Archeoptyrx was a bit faded.  I decided to enhance the skeleton by carving it out and filling it in with melted brown encaustic paint.

Adding brown encaustic paint to carved wax surface.

The excess wax which pooled above the carved out section I removed using my sharp, curved pottery tool.  Once all the excess wax was removed, I fused the surface (easier to scrap off the wax prior to fusing it) with a heat gun.

Fossil's skeleton emphasized with brown encaustic paint.

I felt my painting at this time was too bottom-heavy, and I needed to balance out the feel to the work.  I found a nice silhouette of geese flying in a V-formation, and also printed out the text to Han Christian Anderson’s ‘Ugly Duckling’ story.  At first I was going to simply cut the words out (printed in reverse with a laser toner printer), but my husband convinced to ‘bend’ the words like the blades of grass in the painting.  With his help, we took a picture of the painting, made it the same size in Adobe Illustrator and on another layer, customized the look of the text to follow the curve of the grass.

Laser toner printed words for photocopy transfer onto encaustic wax surface.

In addition to printing out the words in reverse, I used a piece of wax paper to assist in the burnishing (another trick from Woolf’s book, The Encaustic Studio).  Before I had simply rubbed the back of the paper directly onto the wax surface, but the wax paper made it much easier to rub harder (without wrecking the paper) and ensure a better transfer of toner on to the wax.

Printed words and bird images aligned on wax surface for photocopy transfer.

The finished work, “The Ugly Duckling” will be dropped off at the Wyndham Art Supplies for May 24, and stayed tuned for the Auction announcement.  Come check it out and bid on varied 50 original pieces – I can’t wait to see what the other artists have done with their wood panels!

"The Ugly Duckling" by Alexandra Reid

Inchies by inchies – steps to waxing paper images

Posted on by

While collecting vintage images of ephemera for eventual use in my mixed media collages I discovered a terrific resource on Etsy – Digital Collage sheets.  These are image sheets that have been put together by Etsy graphic artists – royalty free, for personal artistic use in creating handmade artworks and crafts (i.e. cards, jewelry, etc.).  There are literally 1000’s of these sheets available on Etsy, searchable by keyword and image size (i.e. 1×1, 1×2 inches).

Here are some of my favourite Etsy graphics shops:

There are so many wonderful images that have been lovingly collected, prettied-up and assembled for creating handmade items!

Contuing my experiments with TerraSkin (the paper made from rocks), I wanted to see if I could print on it with an inkjet printer.  Previously, I had printed my ‘inchies’ on matte photo paper for collage elements (digital sheet from VellasCollageSheet).  Now, I wanted to see if the same collage sheet could be printed onto the TerraSkin paper.  If so, this meant I could do some interesting things with background imagery and encaustic.

Unfortunately, the inkjet printed images did not turn out very well.  Since TerraSkin is water resistant, its slight sheen meant that the ink did not go on crisply, making the images very blurry.  You can see the comparison between the matte photo paper (right) and the TerraSkin paper (left).

Inkjet printing comparison between matte photo paper (left) and TerraSkin (right).

So onto Plan B with the TerraSkin paper.  I had learned from my previous experiments that I could melt encaustic paint on the TerraSkin to make lovely abstracts and be able to slice ‘n’ dice the painted paper.  I attached the TerraSkin paper to a 8 x 8 wood cradled panel with painters’ tape, trying to get a taut surface.

TerraSkin mounted with painters' tape onto an 8 x 8 wood cradle panel.

Next I prepped the surface with two thin coats of clear encaustic medium (EM), and then brushed on some burnt sienna and raw umber encaustic paint (oil paint mixed with EM).

Brushstrokes of encaustic paint on TerraSkin paper.

I fused the colours together with a heat gun, and you can see where the wax pooled as the paper began to ripple in places (white spaces – very hard to get the paper perfectly flat).

Fused encaustic paint on TerraSkin paper.

I printed out some other collage sheets (‘inchies’ from theHouseAcrosstheBay) onto regular computer paper, tracing paper and rice paper (I cut my ‘alternative’ paper smaller than the computer paper, tape the edges and then feed it through the printer one sheet at a time). You can see where my inkjet printer gets unhappy with the bottom edges of the paper.

Inkjet printed images on computer paper, tracing paper and rice paper.

The image ‘inchies’ were cut out from the sheet, creating a stack of various papers to try to embed in the wax.  These squares were dipped into the melted encaustic medium using small metal tweezers, letting the excess wax drip off.

Dipping paper inch squares into melted encaustic medium.

These squares were laid onto the painted surface of the TerraSkin paper and then given two more coats of clear EM on top to seal them onto the encaustic painting.  I wasn’t thrilled with the final result – the dark undercoat of paint made the images hard to see.

Paper squares embedded in encaustic paint on TerraSkin paper.

Plan C – put the squares directly onto the prepped TerraSkin (given two coats of clear EM).  I tried to maximize the use of the space this time – putting down the printed columns of the collage sheet onto the TerraSkin covered wood panel – half with printed tracing paper (left), half with printed rice paper (right).

Comparison of tracing paper versus rice paper embedding in encaustic paint on TerraSkin paper.

I tried to heat through the images to bring up the underlying wax surface to saturate the paper images. Doing this I accidently burnt right through the TerraSkin paper!  Yikes!! I guess the wax wasn’t thick enough there.  Trying to avoid the hole in the paper, I brushed another two coats of clear EM to seal the paper squares.

Burning a hole through the TerraSkin paper.

The final results was closer to what I had in mind – the images were brighter and more legible on top of the white surface of the TerraSkin paper.  I had nice gleaming coat of wax on the images to match my pieces of painted abstract encaustic paper mosaics pieces… but, I still felt the images weren’t as bright as they could be – plus this was a lot work just to get usable images.

Embedded paper squares in encaustic medium on TerraSkin paper.

Plan D – paint the clear encaustic medium directly onto the printed matte photo paper.   Why didn’t I try this first??  Well, I was worried that the paper would crack the wax off (not rigid enough).  I had tried this before with pieces of scrapbook paper with no success (which had prompted this quest for TerraSkin in the first place).

I taped the matter photo paper to an old wood cutting board with painters’ tape.  I brushed on two coats of clear EM (fusing in between coats, and switching directions of brushstrokes).  I moved the board around to attempt to get a level and equal amount of melted wax over the entire sheet.

Matte photo paper coated with clear encaustic medium.

After removing the tape carefully from the edges, I used my X-acto blade, steel-edged ruler and cutting mat to slice up my inchies from the waxed sheet.  This time it worked!  Hurray!  Either the matte photo paper is rigid enough, or perhaps the smaller size was easier to stabilize…  Who knows? Now I had exactly what I wanted – brilliant images coated with encaustic wax – perfect to start building my dimensional encaustic collage pieces.

'Inchies' cut from encaustic medium coated matte photo paper.

 

Rock, paper, encaustic? Painting on TerraSkin paper

Posted on by

A few weeks ago, my husband, Dave and I went for a lovely dinner at The Other Brother’s Restaurant in Guelph.   The food was amazing as was the artwork that was displayed throughout the restaurant.  The works were all done by a local artist, Susan Lapp.  Lapp had two types of works on display – large acrylic abstract landscapes and various-sized shadow boxes of mixed media.  It was these mixed media works that really caught my eye.

"All is Within Reach" by Susan Lapp

I really liked the way Lapp used her acrylic landscapes as mosaics or puzzle pieces in her mixed media works – small squares of paint canvas or paper mounted onto black foam core (at least that’s what it looked like to me).  These squares were then arranged into overall composition that was pleasing and other textural components were added on top, like piano wire or guitar strings.  Her work totally inspired me and got my creative juices flowing!

Detail from "All is Within Reach" by Susan Lapp

Keeping this mind, I wanted to see if I could find a substrate that would allow me to do something similar with encaustics – i.e. cut up my encaustic painting into squares.  Typically, encaustic painting needs a rigid support to be applied to otherwise the wax can crack and flake off (plus paper can burn if you heat it too closely – yikes, dangerous!).  I went on a scavenger hunt in my local Curry’s Art Store to see if I could find something that could work.

After describing what I wanted to try, the shop clerk gave me a piece of TerraSkin paper – a current Curry’s Staff Pick.  She said she knew some artists had used it for acrylic painting and oil pastels, but she didn’t know if it would work for encaustics (yay, time for experimentation).  When I got home, I Googled ‘TerraSkin’ and learned that it was completely ‘tree free’ – Paper Made from Stone!  “Made from 75% mineral powder (ground calcium carbonate or limestone) & 25% non-toxic resin, this paper uses no paper pulp, water or bleach during manufacturing.”

The TerraSkin paper rolled out easily and flattened out.  It was a very bright white colour and had a slight slick feel to the touch.  One side seemed slightly glossy than the other.

TerraSkin paper - made from rocks - tree free.

I decided to treat it like watercolour paper and used painter’s masking tape to tape it down to an old cutting board to give a more rigid support.  This way I could still use a heat source without burning my fingers to fuse the wax.

TerraSkin mounted onto old wood cutting board with painter's masking tape.

I did two coats of clear encaustic medium (EM) over the TerraSkin paper, fusing with a heat gun between coats.  I noticed that it buckled a bit in places and the wax tended to puddle in those spots.  I’m sure if I had stretched it a bit tauter with the tape some of the buckling could have been prevented.  But, still not as smooth as watercolour paper though since TerraSkin paper is water resistant and it would have not been able to be stretched out wet.

TerraSkin after two coats of clear encaustic medium, fused with a heat gun.

Next, I applied various blues, greens and white encaustic paint (oil paint mixed with encaustic medium).  I wanted to make an abstract painting with the look of water or clouds (or both together).  In order to have the colours fuse and blend together, I skipped the usual step of applying a coat clear EM over the paint between colours.

Blue, green and white encaustic paint applied to prepped TerraSkin paper.

This allowed the colours of the paints to mix and swirl together when I applied heat to the painted brushstrokes with the heat gun.

Fused encaustic paints blend together to give a water, cloudy feel to the painting.

I coated the piece in one top coat of clear EM to mute the colours slightly and let it cool.  When it was slightly warm to the touch, I peeled off the painter’s tape.  You can see the clean white edge of the TerraSkin paper next to the painted wax edge.

Carefully removing the painter's tape from the TerraSkin paper.

In some spots, the wax did buckle when the tape was removed.  I pressed the edges down to prevent the wax from lifting off any further.

Ripped wax edges along masked edge on TerraSkin paper.

With the tape removed, you can see the completed abstract encaustic paintng on TerraSkin paper.

Abstract encaustic painting on TerraSkin paper.

Now for my next trick – cutting up my encaustic painting into small squares.  I used a sharp X-acto blade, a steel-edged wooden ruler and a cutting matte.

Cutting into the encaustic painting on TerraSkin paper.

I first cut off the rough edge of the wax that was next to the taped border.  The TerraSkin paper was so flexible with the wax layer still on it, it was able to curl up without cracking the wax surface (keeping in mind there were only 5-6 layers of wax).  I did notice that if I pressed too hard, I indented the wax surface with the imprint of the ruler.

Curled-up edge of TerraSkin paper with wax coating.

I proceeded to cut up my encaustic painting into two-inch stripes.  I had to press quite firmly on the painting in order to make a clean cut through the TerraSkin paper and wax layers.

Two inches strips of cut TerraSkin paper with encaustic painting.

After cutting the painting into strips, I cut each strip into two-inch squares and also into one-inch squares.  The TerraSkin was perfect for what I wanted – the ability to render my encaustic paintings into small squares to be used in mixed media compositions!

Encaustic painting on TerraSkin paper cut into small squares.

The possibilities for using this new (to me) substrate for encaustic painting are just popping into my head – what would TerraSkin be like to print on with an inkjet printer – and then have wax applied on it?  Stay tuned for my next experiment…

 

Art in the Workplace, 8th Exhibition at MIP

Posted on by

My mother, Alida Garside, and I attended the opening night for the 8th Exhibition of “Art in the Workplace” at the Atrium in the McMaster Innovation Place (MIP).

Art in the Workplace, 8th Exhibition

There were over 80 local artists exhibiting their works, and it was tricky to have everyone sit in place for a group photo.   I managed to score a place in the front row (my mom is standing behind me) and my husband, Dave snapped a photo of the group with my iPhone.

Group Photo for the Art in the Workplace, 8th Exhibition

The Atrium is a great venue for exhibiting art – a very modern and airy space.  All the works were hung very professionally. There was a good crowd of people for the opening night.

The Atrium at the McMaster Innovation Park

Unfortunately, my mom’s tryptich was hung in the wrong order, but that was quickly remedied by one of the MIP staff.  Once the pieces “Air, Water and Fire” were hung in the correct order, the overall image made a lot more sense.

Alida Garside with her Elemental tryptich - "Air, Water and Fire"

It was a bit of scavenger hunt to find out where your pieces were hung in the Atrium.  Luckily, my encaustic pieces and my mom’s acrylic paintings were hung in the same corner of the foyer, with mine being very close to the elevator.  I was really happy with my location, since I hoped being near the elevator would be good for visibility.

Alexandra Reid and her three encaustic works at MIP

The pieces that I had chosen this exhibition were three of my favorites – “Blue Dreams”, “Renaissance Wine” and “Parisian Vampire Love Letters.”

"Blue Dreams" by Alexandra Reid

"Renaissance Wine" by Alexandra Reid

"Parisian Vampire Love Letters" by Alexandra Reid

It was great to talk shop with the other artists and get insights on where the good venues in the area were to show art, how to price their works and tips on inexpensive ways to DIY framing.  Networking is as important to artists as it is for the business community – it’s all about who you know!

‘From Heart to Hand’ – Fine Arts Society of Milton art show

Posted on by

March has been an extremely busy month for showing my work!  They say when ‘it rains, it pours’ which is extremely apt for this early Spring weather.  After my featured artist spot at the Milton A.M. Gallery, I was also fortunate to be able to show a piece in the annual 2012 Fine Arts Society of Milton “From Heart to Hand” members’ Show & Sale.

From Heart to Hand - FASM art show

I had dropped off my encaustic work on the Sunday before the show, and on Monday had a complete panic attack about the piece falling out of its floating wood frame.  Dave had attached the wood panel to the frame with PL Premium adhesive (construction quality glue) so it should have been permanently attached.  But just that day I had received a call from the McMaster Innovation Place saying that my one of pieces there had come off its frame and could I pick up my three pieces and secure them better.

I called Nancy Cuttle (the HtoH organizer) and she said it would be OK for me to come into the Holcim Gallery to add some metal brackets to my wood panel to secure it to the frame.  Phew!  Now my nightmare of my piece (14 x 18 inches solid wood panel) hitting the floor during the Milton Mayor’s speech wouldn’t happen.

I quickly took a photo with my iPhone of the gallery set up – the show looks great – very professional!  Huge variety of mediums – acrylic, oil, photography, sculpture (bronze, stone, fabric), paper cutting, over 16 different types of media.  I think I’m the only encaustic artist – nice to be different.

'From Heart to Hand' show at Holcim Gallery in Milton

You can see my piece on the left-hand side of the big birch tree painting.  On the right-hand you can see my mother’s small acrylic painting, ‘Kerns I’.

"Kerns I" by Alida Garside

My mom and I were chosen to be included in this year’s Autumn FASM Studio Tour – now we need to start making lots of new pieces for sale!  We’re going to jointly exhibit at her studio – she has a beautiful forest setting surrounding her – unlike my less showy suburban basement studio.

Here is a close-up of my encaustic piece, “Briar Rose’s Garden”.  I like the play on words – a rose garden filled with briars or Sleeping Beauty’s garden (Princess Aurora aka Briar Rose) covered in roses.

"Briar Rose's Garden" by Alexandra Reid

I didn’t have time yet to post the behind the scenes work on this piece – the central image is a photo that Dave took of a lovely garden in Montenegro.  When I have a chance to catch my breath (and get over this nasty flu/cold bug), I’ll post my ‘before’ pictures from creating this work.

Next week is the 8th exhibition of ‘Art in the Workplace’ at McMaster Innovation Place – I’ll take some photos of my works in situ there – “Blue Dreams“, “Renaissance Wine” and “Parisian Vampire Love Letters.”

Lost Wax Technique aka Heat Gun Overkill

Posted on by

Continuing with the key and keyhole theme, I wanted to try the reverse idea from making a mould and use the objects to make impressions in the wax.  I picked on the boards that I had prepped with a piece of scrapbooking paper and used painters’ masking tape to outline the borders for the wax.

Masking out space for the reverse imprint in wax.

I used the natural encaustic medium (EM) and did six brushes off wax onto the taped section on the board, fusing between each one.  Once the wax was built up high enough (equivalent to the thickness of the key), I briefly warmed up the surface of the wax with a heat gun to make it more pliable.  Carefully, I pushed the key and keyhole down into the warm wax to make the impression, and removed them slowly to not mess up the edges.

Several coats of natural encaustic medium later, you can see the imprints.

The masking tape was removed and the edges on the impressions were cleaned up using my pottery carving tool.  I dug out the hole in the keyhole to make it more visible.

Edges are tidied up and imprints are visible.

Next, I drybrushed on bronze metallic pigment dust to bring out the impressions in the wax into greater relief.  The metallic dust stuck to the warmed wax.

Brushing bronze metallic powder into the impressions.

I gently fused the metallic dust onto the surface of the relief impressions and try to remove the excess dust from the panel.

Metallic powder is fused to the wax surface.

Gathering some collage elements, I started to plan out my next steps for the panel.  I lined up the white wax casting of the key with the impression of the keyhole (I liked the contrast of the positive and negative space juxtaposed).

Gathering up the collage elements for the painting.

I added the Chinese lantern image from a printed napkin and also had my dried rose petals from my flower press ready.

Chinese lanterns and dried rose petals for the picture.

After adding the rose petals, I placed the inkjet printed images of the key and keyhole on top of the petals.  I drybrushed copper metallic pigment over the white wax casting and coated the entire surface of the panel with natural EM to seal everything in.  However, I quickly realized my problem – the wax relief and wax casting were being melted into the panel with the addition of the top layer of wax – big blobs of melted wax!!  Time to rethink using these elements – next time I think these have to be added as a final touch to avoid this issue.

The heat gun has made the wax impressions and casts melt together.

I scrapped off the reliefs and the castings, and added another dried flower – a daisy from my flower press.  I also used an image of a woodpecker and some new feathers from my collection (more natural colours and I liked the spots on them).  I wanted to make this piece feel more ‘masculine’ than my other encaustic collages.  I kept to the warm oranges, browns and blacks even though it had the floral elements in it.

More collage elements were added - dried daisy, woodpecker image and feathers.

You can see my finished piece ‘Still Life with a Woodpecker’ (title is an homage to a great Tom Robbins book) at my online Etsy shop, Lexi Reid Studio.

"Still Life with a Woodpecker" by Alexandra Reid

My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Posted on by

Featured Artist in the A. M. Gallery - The Canadian Champion interview

It’s been a crazy, busy week for me in Fine Art Land.  I joined the Fine Arts Society of Milton (FASM) in early February when I submitted my encaustic pieces for consideration to be included in the Milton Studio Tour in upcoming September 2012.  The A.M. Gallery was looking for artists to exhibit their work (volunteer-run by the FASM) for the month of March.  I lucked out and was asked if I would like to be Featured Artist of the Month and was interviewed by the local Milton newspaper, The Canadian Champion.

It was a mad scramble to get everything framed (shout to Wallack’s Art Supplies for their down-to-the-wire delivery of the black wood float frames – I got their last twelve 8 x 8 frames in stock).  Dave helped me get everything ready, and I managed to hang everything in the gallery.

My very first Art Show!

Featured Artist of the Month at the A.M. Gallery

 A.M. Gallery article in the Canadian Champion – online version

A.M. Gallery article in the Canadian Champion - pdf version

 

Breaking the Mold

Posted on by

My challenge – to make wax castings from a matched set of key and keyholes (another good fit for after Valentine’s Day).  I had purchased a set of Locket Keys by the scrapbook designer Tim Holtz.  I decided to photograph the set so I could also print them out to use as collage elements in my works.

Tim Holtz's Locket Keys

I printed the keys and keyholes onto plain computer paper with my inkjet printer.  I wanted to keep the elements more solid looking this time, rather than using tracing paper or rice paper.  I used an X-acto blade to cut out one of the sets I thought looked paired best together.

Cutting out paper versions of the Locket Keys.

The keys and keyholes were meant to be used as embellishments in scrapbooking.  I liked the ornate decorations on them and wanted to see if I could make wax castings from them.  I followed the guidelines in Lissa Rankin’s book, Encaustic Art, to make wax casts of objects.

"Encaustic Art" by Lissa Rankin

I had purchased Enkaustikos Impasto Wax Medium which was composed of microcrystalline wax combined with the standard beeswax and damar resin.

Impasto Wax composed of microcrystalline wax and encaustic medium.

Next, I used pliable modeling clay (the type that hardens in air) and rolled out two balls of clay, slighter larger than the key and keyhole I wanted to cast.

Modelling clay to be used for wax molds.

I pressed the key and keyhole firmly into the clay, levelling off the top so I could get the metal objects out of the clay easier.

Negative molds made of key and keyhole in modelling clay.

Melting two small pieces of the Impasto Wax (it came as a large block that I tried to chip off smaller chunks to melt) in a pan, I used a spoon to carefully fill my clay molds with liquid wax.  I wanted to avoid air bubbles since they would create a void in the cast object (like Swiss cheese).

Liquid Impasto Wax spooned into clay molds.

Once the Impasto Wax had hardened, I removed the clay mold from the wax castings.  Trimming off the excess wax, I had a nice set of white wax key and keyhole, a perfect replica of the metal objects.

Wax replicas of metal key and keyhole.

Next time I would colour the liquid Impasto Wax first, since I now realized that the white wax key and keyhole would be hard to paint without losing the fine details of the original objects.  As a technique for making replicas to be used in my encaustic works, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

 

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Posted on by

It’s amazing how fast February has flown by!  I’ve been busy travelling with my day job and haven’t had much chance to play in my studio.  Time to get back to it!

My challenge – to put my Valentine’s Day flowers to good use in my paintings.  I had received a lovely mixed bouquet of flowers from my husband to celebrate V-day, and it seemed a shame to let them fade away.

Valentine's Day bouquet.

I selected some peach-coloured roses to start with, taking off any petals that had begun to spoil.  I had purchased a terracotta flower press from Lee Valley Tools in the Fall, but hadn’t had chance yet to use it (not many fresh flowers in late November).  The flower press was made like a sandwich – two outer terracotta plates, two thick felt sheets and two thin cotton sheets.

Terracotta flower press from Lee Valley Tools.

The rose petals peeled off the bud, just like layers in an onion.  I spread them out on the first layer of the flower press (terracotta plate, felt and cotton – and then same pattern on top).  The great thing about this flower press is that it is designed to be used in the microwave.  Instead of sticking flowers between papertowels in old hardcovers books for weeks (often forgetting all about them) to dry, it only took seconds to dry in the microwave.  I did my petals in 30 second intervals, checking to make sure I didn’t overcook them.

Spacing out the rose petals on the flower press.

Once the petals were dry without curling up, I moved them onto a piece of wax paper to cool.  I repeated the same procedure with the rest of the roses.  It took an average about 1 min 30 sec to 2 min for the petals to dry completely.

Dried rose petals from the microwave.

I selected the other blooms – daisies, carnations, freesia and some pink straw flowers.  The colours would darken from the original colours, but still kept in the same hues as the live flowers.  The veins on the petals also became more visible after drying.  I stored each type of blossom in its own envelope to be used in my paintings as collage elements.

Variety of flowers blossoms dried in the flower press.