Shattered Heart

Here is my latest encaustic painting that I mentioned in my last post. I call this, "Shattered Heart". It actually turned out pretty much as I had envisioned when I started the piece.

I knew I wanted to do a few new things with this painting: add more texture and experiment with adding some bits of glass. I just had this image in my head of shattered glass embedded in the wax. I thought that would be a cool effect. So I looked through some of my mosaic glass bits and found these perfect shapes.

Next, I wondered what would happen if I took a metal charm and laid it into the hot wax as a "stamp". I liked the effect. It was a bit challenging trying to lift the metal back out of the wax once I set it in, but after some fiddling with it, I managed to remove it. ;)

Then I used a wire brush in different spots to get the pitted look I see in some of my favorite encaustic artists' work. I also used different sizes of needle tools to inscribe the scratches and outlines around the hearts. When I was satisfied with the texture, I filled in the gouges with oil paint stiks. Finally, I added small bits of screen mesh inside the hearts.

I did have to reinforce the glass with E-6000 but now I know it's not going anywhere. That stuff holds everything! I'm pretty happy with this one. Hubby really liked it and it's now residing in our living room. :)

Today I happened upon an encaustic artist in one of the online encaustic groups I belong to. She achieved the most beautiful effects in her painting by using an iron to paint with! Hmmm....that's got me thinking. I have this unused small travel iron that would be a perfect size for painting these panels. Now, where did I put it?