The end of August

I have painted one Madonna and Child not in a seated position. 

The prototype is from a small book of Coptic icons, I added the cured lines as there is a saying,

                                       "God writes straight with crooked lines".

The end of August in Canada it is a time of endings and beginnings, seasonal, school is restarting, families if they are moving have probably done so by now. And me too, I have moved. Where I have ended up I would never have seen, I was not looking at this part of Ontario but back in early June an interesting apartment rental ad brought me here to look. Although that ad did not work out, I came to Collingwood, on the shores of Georgian Bay, a beautiful place to be. 

 "The future comes out of what is done in the present" I have just lived the truth of this, several trips and viewings of rentals prepared me for the moment when the ad appeared for my current rental  and I knew from afar that this is where I wanted to be.

This painting was an experiment
as I wanted to use this beautiful
yellow paper as my ground.
I attached it to wood and
painted on it. Some of
the fibres started to
break up with the wet paint,
 but it dried beautifully

On the Move
Japanese paper mounted on 1/4" wood
acrylic
adaptation of Coptic Madonna
6 x 12

Impasto Modeling Wax

Second last day and we are introduced to Impasto Modeling wax. This is the medium for sculpture. Working with plaster cloth then covering that form with this medium, then coloring, adding feathers, beads,papers, fabric, oh my gosh......... It is softer than encaustic medium and carves easily. I tried an image transfer onto surface but it did not work for me. But I did have success in building a Shrine and that was a blessing.

New medium introduced
Impasto modeling wax

I built up a thick  form on gessoed board and carved into it
I tried to transfer onto surface but was not successful
but its great for embedding , collage

Then I dipped lace into medium and wrapped the edge of a shadow box

et voila another Shrine
I can go back into this with the heat gun and change it at anytime

Encaustic and Image tranfers

I do alot of image transfers using acrylic gel medium. The difference with the encaustic beeswax is you are able to adjust the image because the ink is attached to wax, so the heat gun can distort the image, move colored wax across the picture. Also you can carve into it and get a woodcut look. I have not even begun to explore the possibilities..............

You can carve into wax and get a woodcut look

Here I dipped wire screen in colors
 and then placed it on waxed canvas surface
. Next day I pulled screen off to get this fabulous texture.
Then a small image transfer, discovering that some paper left on leaves great texture

Laying the first wax medium down on encaustic gesso,
I did not apply the wax evenly. So I got a very broken, aged?
transfer of lilies. Then I transfered three Madonnas, repeating image,
two B&W, one colored. I tinted second Madonna and carved into her mantle

the Day of Encaustic Collage

As this week long course was called Encaustic and Mixed Media our next demo was the collage method. The images have to be photocopies not glossy magazine or book pictures. The bees wax has to bond with oil based image. But lace, doilies, non polyester fabrics and handmade papers work very well.  I used a lot of tissues and papers from the Japanese Paper Place. You dip the paper, lace, image into the clear beeswax/damar crystal medium, then you lay it on a surface that has been primed with the same medium. Here are some of my 'day of collage' pictures.

Papers,lace,fabrics, layers upon layers of the wax medium

Here I had a lace dollie around Our
Lady's mantle, then I took it off
and all this imprint of bees wax showed up
 

Lace, papers,string, it's endless creativity

Working with Beeswax

Thank you Susan Fisher for a great week of Encaustic at the Haliburton School of the Arts. http://fisherencaustic.com/

On this post I start with a picture of 'the station' we each had, to work in this medium. That hot palette costs $350.00, so I need to sell some paintings if I go to set up and then you need to purchase the pigments set in beeswax, no acrylics in this process. You can use oil sticks as the oil mixes with the beeswax.

The skill to paint with the warm brush is another learning curve. 

The station we each had to work at.
the brushes need to stay warm,
 the heat gun fuses the wax pigments
lots of possibilities as the color floats

first run, getting the feel of the pigment loaded brush

2nd piece, I treated this like I do acrylic, layers of color, glazing, then carving into the wax

The Pardon at a shrine in Assisi

Madonna of The Annunciation
9 x 12
SOLD

 On the plains below the city of Assisi is the huge church of Santa Maria degli Angeli/St. Mary of the Angels. This church was built to enclose and protect the chapel of La Porziuncola, the place St. Francis received his new friars and where he died. This little chapel is a place of pilgrimage because Francis said that Jesus himself grants forgivness to anyone who prayers here with a repentant heart. In August there is a great celebration in Assisi on the 15th, the feast of the Assumption of Mary or in the Orthodox title, The Dormition.
Within the tiny chapel of La Porziuncola beautiful frecos have been painted. I have a print of The Annunciation, it is unsigned but historians guess it was by a priest named Hilarius of Viterbo,1313. I have isolated this portion of the fresco to bring the viewer into the presence of this still and listening Mary.
These are pictures of some of the gel transfers I mounted on wood and then used the strong silkscreen Japanese paper, chiyogami to frame it.
contact me if you would like to purchase this piece.
athomewsoul@gmail.com

Madonna from the Annunciation
The woman who bought this sent me this photo
 I like the wall shelf they put it on

Experimenting with the same image

 August. I'm am going next week for a week long class in Encaustic,
 the instructor is Susan Fisher: http://fisherencaustic.com/ 
 In Iconography, Encaustic is one of the earliest mediums and the pictures I have posted here are two of my works adapted from a Madonna and Christ child, 6th century encaustic icon at St Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai.  The colour photo is acrylic with layers of clear acrylic gel between paint applications. I was trying to get an encaustic look, after next week I should have a better idea of the actual encaustic process.

Madonna & Child 6th cent
4 x 6
Acrylic on wood

Madonna & Child 6th cent
B&W gel transfer collage
acrylic, modeling paste

Saint George, Joseph and Paul

In my previous post I had Saint's Francis, Patrick, Jude and Anthony. My final group of male's are here. In the 1980's there was a traveling Icon exhibit called Holy Image,Holy Space Icons and Frescoes from Greece. What was surprising to me was the number of Icons of St. George. The commentary attributed this to  the soldier status of this saint, how that vocation caught the devotion of the centuries when men were going off to war with horses and spears. Interestingly, also in the 1980's one of Americas great Troubadour's, songwriter Paul Simon choose to put an Icon of St. George on his best selling recording "Graceland". As I have a good number of visitor's to my posts from Russia I acknowledge that you have a particular devotion to St. George, Patron saint of your country. St. Joseph is the Patron saint of my country, Canada. St. Paul came to be from a commission by a friend who during the 'Year of St. Paul' wanted to honor the contribution of this saint to our history.

St. George slaying the dragon
5 x 6
Acrylic on wood

St. Joseph and Christ child
5 x 6
Acrylic on wood

St. Paul
5 x 6
Acrylic on wood