In continuing my series of encaustic landscapes, I've worked both with oils as the under painting on wooden cradle boards with overlays of R&F
white beeswax which I melt with Damar resin to create my medium .
Or, I tint the beeswax medium with oils to produce the atmospheric effects I want solely using beeswax.
In my current series of abstract landscapes, I'm trying to create a mood, mysterious somewhat melancholy, probably due to the New England weather where countryside and mists offered such moody landscapes over the fields around where I lived as a young mother.
I grew up in the city, but lived in the countryside near a lake for about ten years and passed horse farms and large colonial farmhouses when I drove into town.
Since my mother was born in London, I've long been an avid Anglophile and love landscapes with lonely towers, castles, manor houses, cathedrals and church steeples.
So I've created a series of towers and ruins both in oils and encaustic on wood as well as with oils on canvas. I like the richness of the oils as the base and the addition of the encaustic beeswax creates a dreamlike mystique.
The beeswax overlays also make the paintings more cohesive somehow. It doesn't blend the paints as I feared when I brushed the hot wax over the surface or disturb the lower level even when I've only allowed it to dry for about a week.
But once completed it creates a subtle effect by virtue of the wax textures giving the viewer the illusion that they're viewing the architecture from a distance, The atmosphere appears heavy with moisture. And the gleaming finish you achieve when you polish the wax with a soft cloth makes it all luminous.
I work on boards as small as 2x2 and go up to 11X14 preferring smaller pieces which can be combined and hung together.
Or, I tint the beeswax medium with oils to produce the atmospheric effects I want solely using beeswax.
In my current series of abstract landscapes, I'm trying to create a mood, mysterious somewhat melancholy, probably due to the New England weather where countryside and mists offered such moody landscapes over the fields around where I lived as a young mother.
I grew up in the city, but lived in the countryside near a lake for about ten years and passed horse farms and large colonial farmhouses when I drove into town.
Since my mother was born in London, I've long been an avid Anglophile and love landscapes with lonely towers, castles, manor houses, cathedrals and church steeples.
The beeswax overlays also make the paintings more cohesive somehow. It doesn't blend the paints as I feared when I brushed the hot wax over the surface or disturb the lower level even when I've only allowed it to dry for about a week.
But once completed it creates a subtle effect by virtue of the wax textures giving the viewer the illusion that they're viewing the architecture from a distance, The atmosphere appears heavy with moisture. And the gleaming finish you achieve when you polish the wax with a soft cloth makes it all luminous.
I work on boards as small as 2x2 and go up to 11X14 preferring smaller pieces which can be combined and hung together.
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