Warhol: Deconstructed

Here is the second encaustic painting in my Deconstructed series. You can tell by the title of the post who the image is: Andy Warhol, one of my favorite artists! Here is the image I transferred onto fabric and began with:

Then I started the screen printing process. I did so many rounds of screen prints and ended up with a ton of different images on fabric to work with. I had originally planned on making an art quilt with these squares. I have so many to choose from that I may still do that with some that are left over. Here are the fabric squares I've chosen to make encaustic paintings with. I've laid the squares out side by side to show the progression of the screen print as the image deconstructed through the process. So cool!  Yes, I changed fabric through the process. Plus, these are my favorite images through a couple of different runs. ;-)

These are 8" x 8" squares and fit perfectly onto the deep wood panels I have. So far I've only done the two with encaustic but I love the finished look of them. Here is a side view of one of the paintings hanging on the wall:

Once I get each square embedded in encaustic, I'll arrange each wood panel on the wall. They will be arranged similar to the way they are laid out in the above photo but I will probably will have more in each row. I will post a photo when the series is completed and on the wall.

This is my Paint Party Friday entry. Check out what everybody else is up to today. Last I checked there are nearly 70 entries! Should be lots of eye candy waiting.

Deconstructed

"First I'm gonna make it

Then I'm gonna break it

Till it falls apart"

-- Echo & the Bunnymen

This is another encaustic painting that is part of a series I'm working on. I won't reveal too much yet because I want to show the entire series together later. I will say that this is a face and it's been screen printed onto muslin. This muslin square is now set into about five layers of encaustic medium. It's not the first print off the screen. I had the squares piled up in no particular order so I'll have to sort those out later when I hang the finished pieces up. I just picked this square at random because I liked the detail and the color. I'll reveal who the face is and another print on the next post! 

I have had all of these prints laying in a basket for a while now. I really didn't want to sew them together even though that was my original intent when I made them. [Maybe because I'm not a great seamstress!]  ;-)  But in the back of my mind I  knew there may be something else I could do with them. It's on an 8 x 8 encausticbord panel that's 2 1/2 inches thick and it's the exact look I was hoping for. 

When I showed this to hubby I asked him to guess what it was. He thought at first it was a closeup of a piece of wood. Then I revealed the original face and showed him the progression of the squares after they had been run through the screen. Ha! He just shakes his head at my experiments. But he did like this one! Yay! That's good because there will be a bunch of them hanging on the wall when I'm finished. 

This is my entry for Paint Party Friday. It's been a year and we're still going strong! Check it out. The party is bigger and better than ever!

In Bloom

Gorgeous weather here today had me wishing that my flowers were in bloom. So I painted them! I was also able to experiment with more techniques using the encaustics. That made for a fun day all the way around. ;-) I hope it was just as nice where you were! Have a great week everyone!

Solitude

"Highest of heights, I climb this mountain

and feel one with the rock and grit

and solitude echoing back at me."

-- Bradley Chicho

I'm working with encaustics again! The last couple of days have been warm enough to actually open the windows and plug in the equipment and ventilation fan. Today was pushing it, though. It got too cold with the windows open after a few hours so I finally had to shut it down. But I'm excited to be working with the wax again. I've got a lot of pieces started and am anxious to get back to them as the weather warms up. 

This was the first time I had worked with the encausticbords made by Ampersand. I really like them. They are all primed and ready to go; and they are specifically made for encaustics. 

This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday (a day early).  Be sure to check out all the other entries. The party gets bigger every week!  :-)

Hope

Hope

What's the use

of something

as unstable

and diffuse as hope--

the almost-twin

of making do,

the isotope

of going on:

what isn't in

the envelope

just before

it isn't:

the always tabled

righting of the present.

--Kay Ryan

This is another of my encaustic paintings. It's also my (pink) entry for this week's Summer of Color, although I'm a little late for the party. 

We literally had two tons of gravel delivered to the house and are going back for more! So I've been shoveling gravel and doing a lot of work outside. That doesn't leave much time for art at the end of the day. :( I'm finding that I'm not as young as I used to be and when the evening comes I seem to want to just take it easy now (not to mention the sore muscles)! Hopefully this last load will be the end of it and I can get back to my painting. ;)

Shattered Hearts

"But you cut me quick

In the light of the shade,

On the edge of the green

Of the yard's sharpest blade..."

Sharpest Blade, by Over the Rhine

These are a pair of paintings I did last year. It was when I first started experimenting with encaustic painting. I love this medium! Now that summer's here I have cleared that part of my art room and am eager to start in again.  You must have adequate ventilation (open windows and exhaust fan) for the fumes but it's worth it. I've been stockpiling all kinds of new colors of encaustic paint every time I visit Blick Art Supply so we shall see what develops in the coming weeks. I'm still new at it but I'm ready to bring out the torch and see what I can come up with. Don't tell hubby but I've got a new torch, too! I'll be careful not to burn the house down...  ;) The first painting is called Shattered Hearts.

The second painting is called Bleeding Hearts. It's done over an old painting I bought at a store and then decided I didn't like so I thought I would just paint my own! ;) So these are my heart paintings for today.

For this week's Paint Party Friday I wanted to contribute something so I thought I would show you a different medium. Be sure to check out all the other entries. There is always a great deal of eye candy there! ;)

Tandem Andy's

Warhol Collage                                    9" x 12"   

I am on vacation this week so I am posting my Paint Party Friday entry early. Plus, tomorrow will be my birthday and I hope to be out celebrating! I promise to make it to all of the artists' blogs at some point this weekend. I am entering two of my older pieces. I call these my "Tandem Andy's". They are two versions of the same piece. The first one is a collage of Andy Warhol. I used CitraSolv papers and acrylic paint on this painting. 

For this second piece I printed the collage out onto silk and adhered it to a  12" x 12" wood panel. Then I painted it with encaustic paints.  

 



I like both versions for different reasons. I like the colors in the CitraSolv papers and the effects they give in the collage. But I really love encaustic paint and the bold colors they brought to the silk. Plus I LOVE the splatter! ;)

Don't forget to check out the other artists at Paint Party Friday. It's always a treat to see what everyone has been up to this week.

Home Fires

This is a new encaustic painting called "Home Fires". It's 12" x 12" x 2" on cradled wood. I was intrigued with a few encaustic artists who incorporate graphite powder into their paintings. I loved that look so I wanted to give it a try. I am very excited about the possibilities with that! I also wanted to make my own stencil and use the graphite powder on that so I made a crude house stencil and then smeared the powder on my fingers and was able get the "burned" house look I wanted. Then I just covered the whole thing with encaustic medium.

I'm slowly getting used to the torch. It's a bit scary but I like how it makes the wax smooth. It can also make really cool dripping effects which I'll use in other paintings. Now I have to go prep some more boards!