Tangled Heart

This is my new encaustic mixed media piece: Tangled Heart. I didn't originally start out to do just one color with the encaustic. But after I laid down a couple layers of the titanium white and then the red, I didn't want to add any more color. I liked the bold splash of blood-red on the white.

When I started to fuse the red layer it was really cool how the bottom left splash ended up looking somewhat like a heart that was breaking up and melting. I didn't want to touch it anymore after I fused this layer so I decided to work on the next part: the resin heart.

This wood board had a 4 inch square cut in it already so I decided to add a heart there. I used some copper wire in different gauges in zig zag patterns behind the hole and backed that with copper mesh. Then I added a heart covered in paper and resin. Here's a closeup of that part:

I put this piece in our great room and I really like how it blends in with the other pieces I've done. This one measures 12" x 12" x 1 1/2". I have really missed working with the encaustics. It's been so hot already this summer and the studio upstairs is just unbearable to work in if I have to close off the air conditioning vents. In order to paint with the encaustics I have to plug in the heating element, open both windows, use the exhaust fan, etc. and it's just too hot in the room. But this week we had a little reprieve and it was in the mid 70's all week. What a treat to play with them again!

Other things happening: Kelly Rae Roberts' course ended this week and that was sad. It's been fun checking in with her and reading the posts and comments from the group. But the Facebook group will continue and that's been a great help. There are so many energetic, fun, talented women in that group! I love reading those posts and looking through the blogs.

My sister is coming to visit for a few days! Yay! Hopefully it will be in the next week or so. We always have a great time when she comes so I'm looking forward to that. And I'm putting finishing touches on the two faces I'm painting in Sharon Tomlinson's Technicolor Faces course. This one is very challenging but I'm giving it my best shot. I'll post those when they are finished if they don't turn out too alien-looking. :(

Have a safe holiday weekend everybody! We will be staying home working on different projects around here. One of mine will be getting the spare room ready for sis. And playing more with the drill in the work room. I'm still not ready to show that project yet. But it's coming along! More to come on that later...

Staying True

One thing that is really hitting home in taking Kelly Rae Roberts' course is her message: stay true to yourself when setting up your creative business and when making your art. There are so many ways to do things...so much inspiration out there...and so many helpful tutorials and articles on "how to" do things that it can all get overwhelming. And then you start to second guess...everything. Am I doing it right? Am I doing anything worth doing? WHAT am I doing? On and on it goes.

I've kind of hit that wall a little bit. I'm so thankful for the information and the resources that Kelly is sharing in her course. They will be invaluable in the weeks to come as I sort it all out. But I had to take a breather and just re-evaluate what it is I am wanting to do exactly. I'm not alone in this dilemma; I've seen others in the class asking the same questions. We're all just trying to make sense of it all and find our own paths. It's all exciting and the possibilities are endless, but you do have to start narrowing down where you want your focus to go!

I tend to be all over the place when it comes to my art. One week I'll really be into painting, then I'll switch to drawing and colored pencils or watercolors, then I'll do some mixed media on a canvas, then I may want to play with encaustics. You get the idea. But regardless of what medium I choose to work in, I have my own ideas on how I want my piece to look and I know a lot of times it's not what is probably considered "correct". Hubby always comments on my girls that I draw: "I like her but her neck is so long". Yes! I want to draw long necks. Maybe I'll stop at some point but right now I want to keep it up. It makes me happy. And happy Pam is creative Pam! :)

So I'm mulling all of this over and still trying to get some art made in the meantime. I started Sharon Tomlinson's class on painting faces in Technicolor. I must say it is a challenge. I don't paint faces too often. I love to draw them and color them with colored pencils and inks. But paint and me...it's definitely a steep learning curve. I'm on the verge of pitching the first canvas. I have so many layers on the poor face it's sad. But it's my first time actually painting a face on a canvas with acrylics. I've attempted faces with watercolors or painting on watercolor paper, which for some reason was a little easier than painting on the canvas.

Sharon had us sketch three versions of the same model. We were to find our own model. Of course with my abundance of fashion magazines laying around I had no trouble with that. We have three different canvases to paint so I have two more fresh ones waiting to start. These are small (6" x 9" canvas boards) so no big loss if I have to trash them. I'm going to persevere one more day with this first one and then call it a "warm up exercise" and start another one. But I want to wait for her next lesson to see what new things she introduces before I tackle the next canvas. I'm glad I saved my favorite sketch on canvas for a later lesson.

Last night I sketched a face in a little 3" x 5" sketch notebook and colored it with my pencils. This is kind of the idea we are going for with the technicolor look on canvas. It's so much easier with the pencils! I scanned her into Photoshop and put her into this digital collage but I wanted you to see the colors that I'm trying to get with the paints. By the way, the sketch is mine but the elements are from Tangi Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics. She is my favorite digital designer. I just lover her style! Now I'm going back to that darn canvas and try again...

Discovery

This is my latest resined panel. It is 6" x 6" x 1 1/2". The sides are painted black. I tried to take a photo with the least amount of glare from the resin. There is just a slight bit in this photo on the very edge. I am getting a little more used to working with the resin. It's not perfect but a little better than the last one. I learn from the mistakes with each one. Ideas are definitely taking shape!

I call this one, "Discovery". As I was working on it I was thinking about the ecourse I'm taking with Kelly Rae Roberts (see button on sidebar). It's about starting your own creative business. This is something I've dreamed about for a long time and am working very hard to get going. I love this course. She is sharing what did and didn't work for her as she launched her successful business. It's been the exact thing I needed right now and I am so glad I signed up for it.

I have a lot of ideas for the direction I want my art to take. I don't have a single medium that I work in. I like to explore the different forms and see what results can come from working in them. I have a few surprises waiting in the wings. They aren't quite ready to show but are getting close.

These resined panels are really giving me a lot of inspiration. Hubby loves them. He wants me to do some bigger ones for the living room. I told him they are not easy! I want to work bigger, too, but I have to take it slow to figure out how the resin reacts to the different things I add to it. I'm going to do a series of smaller ones first. Then I will gradually move up in size. In the meantime, I'll be filling up the niches in the built-in shelves in the great room with my art. :)

I am really happy with this latest piece. It turned out exactly how I envisioned when I started it. That doesn't happen too often. I don't always have a pre-set notion of how I want something to look but for this one I pretty much knew what I wanted the overall look to be. I added different inks and other elements to this piece before adding the resin and was unsure how the resin would react to those. I was a little nervous when I started the pour but all turned out okay. So it's all a big adventure. The fun is in the discovery!

More to come on my experiments with yet another new art form and updates on my progress through Kelly Rae's class. I hope to announce the opening of my online shop soon!