The aspen path

Hallo, 

   Finished off this painting yesterday in the studio and turned it in for a show at our local Arts and Design Society - the theme is 'Van Gogh' . Although I don't remember Van Gogh painting aspens, I tried to capture his colorful brushstrokes that so many of his landscapes are famous for.

   One of the nice thing about encaustics is the fast 'drying ' time. it only has to cool. Encaustic will continue to cure - as in harden and become more durable in the first 6 months to a year after it was initially painted. 

   ALl for me today - was in the studion again for a few hours today - starting a 3D encaustic mixed media project involving - a big piece of driftwood, paperclay, paper, an old glass bottle and of course encaustic. Look for that project in a couple weeks.....

  Have a great week!!!

                                                                                         Tera

 

Vincent visits Kansas

Hallo,

   It has been a busy few weeks here but have managed a little time in the studio. 

   We have a 'Van Gogh' themed show coming up this month so in the great tradition of learning from the masters by using their work as inspiration, this will be one of my entries.

   I grew up in the midwest and have seen a few thousand wheat fields in my day so this was the theme I chose. 

Tried to use the bright colors and visible brush strokes typical of alot of Van Gogh's landscapes. I was happy with how it turned out!!

    All for today - have a bit of time to head off to the studio here in a bit  so maybe have more to show you soon!

    Take Care

 

Bingo basket

Hallo,

   I finished off another 'couch project' last night. I cannot just sit on the couch and watch TV so I always have something to do with my hands. I make locker hook rugs and in the last year have started making baskets.

   For the base of this basket, I used an old bingo card that I found at a thrift shop (a packet of 4 actually). I drilled holes along all the edges to attach the first coil to. I used a paper coil and hemp twine to wrap the coil. I also Had an old plastic beaded necklace in my stash, and I used some of the beads in the top part for a bit of decoration.

  I made the walls of the basket a bit shorter at the front just to show off the card a bit more. Tapering the new coils at the front edges to build up the next layers was a bit of a challenge!!

  All for today - Take Care!!

     Tera

 

Creepy tree - Snowy Range WY

Hallo,

  A ton of pics in this post just to show you the progression of this painting. The background  started with very light blues and grays and then I added white/gray diluted with alot of medium to make it more translucent. 

  For the background trees I painted them in dark greens and browns and then added a couple coats of plain medium alternating with the diluted foggy gray.

   I printed the tree onto tissue paper(from one of my photos- isolated the tree). The second picture shows the print and the third is me starting to iron the tissue paper so it melts into the wax.

   Pic #4 shows how the print looks after embedding it into the wax. I then used a hot pen with a fine tip to paint over the tree with wax, using the print as an under drawing.(pic 5).

  Pic 6 is after I added in the foreground grasses - to bright so pic 7 is after I fogged them up a bit.

  Pics 8 and 9 are the finished painting. I am pretty pleased with how this one has turned out. I done often do monochromatic pics and they are a challenge for me.

    All for today - Take Care

         Tera

 

Fire in the sky

Hallo,

  Just a quick post this afternoon. I finished off this painting last weekend and just hadnt had time to share as of yet.

  This is 10 inches wide by 20 tall, encaustic. I used a photo I took a few years ago in Nebraska, printed onto tissue paper and embedded into the wax after I had done the background. I used the photo as an under drawing and added paint over the drawing and added a few freehand branches of my own.

   The first photo is the final painting and the other three show more of the progression of the painting.

   All for today - Have a great weekend!!!

       Tera

 

Old barns, buildings and the Bohemian Alps

Hallo,

   Went driving around a bit in the Bohemian Alps of Nebraska one day while I was home. The only day I really had turned out VERY COLD AND WINDY, so I wasnt out for long.  I mainly took photos from the road as I didnt have permission to tramp around AND it was just to blasted cold!!!

   The last 3 photos were taken on the old farm place owned by my folks. And the 2 pics of the road were for all those folks who think that Nebraska is flat. These were the nice rolling hills - we didnt go very far or I would have gotten some better hill shots.

   All for today - Take Care

     Tera

 

Snow day

Hallo,

   A few snowy pics today from my trip back home to Nebraska to visit my folks. Living in Florida, I haven't seen snow in over 10 years so I was a happy camper. Just enough snow to make everything pretty without it being to cold or windy!!!

   I had to drive in it a little and was gratified to know that I can still drive in the snow and (later in the week) ice!! The snow was melted by about 11 and later in the week I drove down to Lincoln in rain/sleet/ice mix - mostly rain.

   All for today - Take Care

        Tera