cleaning the studio...
...and other adventures in artshockingly pink
I readily admit I’m a pushover for color.
This pink hasn’t been seen in these pieces so far. It’s Dianthus Pink from R&F Paints. I already regularly use it in oil-paint-stick form, but I just bought the encaustic paint version for the first time.
As you can see, it’s shockingly pink in its pure form.
In The Daily Bird, Day 38, I layered it with purple and red against a neutral background, and it’s not so shocking. I don’t know if it will play well with the other 49 pieces, though.
I think I’ll be using it in the next few days so that there are enough pink pieces to bully the rest of the colors into submission. Or maybe there will be some gentle persuasion involved, since no one likes a bully.
The Daily Bird, Day 41
I often add barbed wire, nails and other metal materials to my encaustic images, but the relentless (!) schedule of doing fifty pieces in fifty days has thus far precluded that sort of work. This piece called for it, so I added a strip of painted hardware cloth.
It’s not yet permanently wired into place, because I’m not sure that it will hang well with the other pieces unless some of them are altered as well. If not, then this piece will be finished in some other way.
The story behind the photo: I found this taxidermied bird in a natural history museum, sitting in front of a window as though it was looking outside. It had such a wistful look that I couldn’t resist taking the photo. What an odd choice of placement for the museum curator.
The photo alone is interesting, even without my additions. The hardware cloth provides a barrier much as the window does, but of a different sort.
Day forty-one of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days, Encaustic/Oil/Photo/Mixed Media on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Days 37, 38, 39, 40
Days thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine and forty of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Days 33, 34, 35, 36
Days thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five and thirty-six of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Days 31 and 32
Days thirty-one and thirty-two of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Day 30
It doesn’t always go so smoothly in the studio. I’m constantly revising, and not always with happy results.
This particular piece was started on Day 3. I rather liked the first version, but when I decided it wasn’t finished, I ended up with an awful second version. Luckily, encaustic is endlessly workable, so a piece is rarely ruined.
At that point, I decided that I just didn’t like the shape of the bird, so I kept trying to counter-balance the shape of the bird with other compositional elements.
Have I succeeded? I have a few more weeks before the show goes up. My motto is always, “If it’s still in the studio, it’s fair game.” Until something leaves my studio permanently, I’m always tempted to work on it again. But maybe this one is finished?
The Daily Bird, Days 28 and 29
Days twenty-eight and twenty-nine of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Days 26 and 27
Days twenty-six and twenty-seven of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Days 24 and 25
Days twenty-four and twenty-five of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days. Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
The Daily Bird, Day 23
Day twenty-three of the Sanchez Art Center 50-50 show, 50 pieces in 50 days, Encaustic/Oil/Photo on Panel, 6″ x 6″
That bird on the bottom left looks more like an anchovy to me than a bird. And every time I look at this one in my studio I think the same thing. Nevertheless, I very much like the shapes enveloping and obscuring the birds in this one, all on the periphery of the piece as though it’s in one’s peripheral vision.