After many unsuccessful attempts, I was finally able to snag a BEE Team Treasury. Click here to check it out while it’s still up!

It’s too bad there are only twelves spots available to feature our talented team. Did anyone else get a treasury this week?

View, 12×12 encaustic by Deanna Wood

Announcements:

Guest Blogging:

1. We are still looking for a member to guest blog for November! Leave a comment or email info@beeswaxteam.com if you are interested. We’d love to have your voice be a stronger part of our site.

Treasures and Team Promotion:

2. This month, let’s make a team effort to get treasuries to feature the fantastic encaustic work of our teammates and find other ways to promote each other.

Busy bees and waxaholics,

Kathryn and Melissa

This summer at one of the workshops at the Encaustic Conference, there was a big debate over encaustic ventilation safety. It’s a hot topic because people have different opinions about the damage that working with encaustic can cause. I’d like to get an idea of what our team members think about this, and hopefully we can all learn a little more about the process. To get started, check out R&F’s helpful fact sheet on ventilation here.

How do you ventilate when working with encaustic?

Do you wear a mask?

Have you noticed any symptoms of encaustic irritants over time?

In my home studio, I ventilate with a fan and open window, but as the winter gets closer and the temperature drops, I am unsure if I will be able to continue to paint with encaustic through the winter months. For those of you who have years of experience with encaustic, how do you deal with the cold during the winter?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Kathryn

Tranquility by Sue Simpson of Earthtonestudios

Announcements:

1. October’s Team Meeting:

As we’ve mentioned recently, we will be starting a monthly team leadership meeting to discuss ideas and direction for our team. This month, the meeting will take place in a group chat October 18 at 4 EST. All are welcome! We’d love your input. Let me know you’d like to join us, and I will send you the info when available!

2. Guest Bloggers Needed!

I’m sure you have noticed Beth’s first blog post as guest blogger on beeswaxteam.com. We’re on the lookout for other members to fill this role in the coming months! It only requires four posts, on each Monday, for a month. Let me know ASAP if you are interested in guest blogging.

Busy bees and waxaholics,

Kathryn and Melissa

Hi again,

I’m a wee bit late getting this post in but have been up to some new tricks that I wanted to share and get feedback on.  The 1st picture posted above is the one of two small paintings that I created in my 1st encaustic class. This painting (along with it’s partner) have been the most commented upon piece in my studio.  I knew as soon as I made this piece that I was smitten with the magic of beeswax and heat. To create this painting I layered on colors and then placed the wood panel face down onto my heated palette for a moment and lifted it to achieve the effect of motion. I layered beeswax over the swirled wax so it almost appears trapped under the clear layer.

Obviously you are limited by size when using the face down method so when I saw the encaustic iron (picture #2) at the conference at Montserrat I was intrigued.  I decided to play around with it last week as I set out to create a dark, murky background and was really happy with the results although it took a bit of trial and error to not get bare spots (some of my results can be seen in Photo #3).

I know that Linda Cordner uses the iron to achieve a perfectly smooth and glass like finish on her paintings.  Do you have any tips or tricks for using the iron?  Feel free to share any links to work you or another artist has created using something other than the heat gun to transform wax….and thanks for sharing!

See you next week,

Beth

The Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tuscon, Arizona is now accepting submissions for its Fifth Annual Encaustic Exhibition. Any 2D or 3D work is eligible, and the applications are accepted by “snail mail” only. The exhibition will take place in March 2010, but the deadline is fast approaching: October 25, 2009. Click here for full details on how to submit.

Have you submitted? Are you planning on it? I think it’d be great if a couple of our members were selected for this show!

I’m happy to be the first in a series of guest bloggers here on The Bee Team Blog!  I’m so impressed by the amount of energy and talent that has shown itself here over the past year and look forward to seeing what everyone else has to share in the coming months (if you haven’t blogged before here is your chance to give it a whirl!).

I recently received an inquiry from a client in Alaska.  She wanted to know if the encaustic piece she purchased would survive if she were to leave it hanging on the wall of her house if she left for a few weeks and turned off the heat.  She mentioned that when she does this she drains the pipes etc…as the temperature in the house goes well below zero but mentioned that no one would be touching the piece.  As an experiment I took a small piece and put it in my freezer for a week and then took it out and hung it on the wall. What I found was that the piece was totally fine (no bloom, cracking or changes).  If anyone out there has any experience with extreme cold and encaustics I’d love to hear from you….

Next I’d like to share a bit of work by Patricia Seggebruch (author of Embracing Encaustics).  I found this blog entry inspiring, amusing and intriguing.  The idea of using found and household items and coating the wax in such a luscious way over them has led me down a whole new path with one of my larger pieces….hmmm.  What are you layering into your pieces lately?  

And lastly,  I want to share the joy of the documentary “Herb and Dorothy” which is being screened around the country.  I’m trying to figure out how I can make it to one of the screenings ( I’ve read many stories about this couple in the paper but hearing their story in their own voices would be awesome. Their story is so facinating and speaks to my belief that original art is accesible to us all…it’s knowing what you like and making it a priority.

Oh and- a special thanks to Melissa for my extra special package ( I love, love, love all three)!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next monday to share some new works in progress…

Beth

While perusing Lorraine Glessner’s blog, I came across the artist Leslie Wayne and was blown away by her textures.

She does this all with oil on wood. How impressive! Check out a detail shot:

I think she’d be a fantastic addition to the encaustic camp, don’t you? See more here.