Point Havisu

Hallo,
  Lots of pictures with this post today. This encaustic wax painting is about 25 layers, followed by lots of carving, followed by more layers added on top of the 'rocks' for texture, and then about 10 more layers of clear wax with oil sticks to add the 'water'.
  The painting is 24 inches tall by 36 inches wide.
   The top 2 pictures are the final version one laying down and one standing upright - the upright one catches a lot of light and shine where the laying down one is more true to the colors and actual look of the painting.
  The third picture shows the carving in progress - the whole painting was layered to the level of the copper brown color and then carved back, leaving some high spots for rocks and rims of the pools at the top of the painting. I started with a base of about 4 layers plain wax followed by 3 to 4 layers of 7 colors.
   I carved back, leaving the layers exposed on the edges of the pools and rocks. Once I had the carving the way I wanted it, I added a couple layers of clear wax to the pool and stream areas as a base for the oil sticks.
  I used oil stick colors with more transparent colors like pthylo blue and green gold and a turquoise color. I did many layers here too - the oil stick melts nicely into the wax and then ever so often I added another clear layer of wax....
  The last 4 pics(as well as the first 2 at top) are the final version of this painting.
    All for today - Take Care
        Tera

Clear wax layers to start with oil sticks.

Channeling Havasu

 Hallo,
   Just a quick post this am - this is a small practice piece for a large carved piece that is almost finished.
   Lots of wax layers here - base is 3 layers to prime the board, then 3 layers of 7 colors of wax. The first 2 pics show all the color layers as I am starting to carve into them.
 It is meant to look like some of the streams in Havasu Arizona with pools and then the stream running down from them - the photos are upside down for the first 2.
  The third and fourth pics show when I was done with carving and added some texture to the tops of the boulders in the stream bed and then some smaller pebbles....
  The last 3 photos show the various stages of adding the water. I used clear wax with pan pastels. My first try was with encaustic only for the water but there was not enough translucence for me so I scrapped that off and did it again with the pan pastels which was a bit more translucent but for the bigger painting I went with oil sticks to color the water and am happier with how that is going. I should be done with the bigger one soon - well one or 2 more days to work on it but looking like I wont get much studio time in the next few weeks.... so eventually....
   Meanwhile I do like how this one turned out - makes me want to do a couple more but the carving is very hard on my hands so will have to see about that....
   All for today - Take Care
      Tera