The Bee Team » encaustic painting

Announcements – October 12

kbean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:26:18 +0000

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

Week of Aug 31

newbyart — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:44:47 +0000

Sailor Boy by Bumblebellydesigns

Announcements:

1. Approaching deadline:

If you haven’t seen the approaching deadline for the Encaustic Group Show (in Chicago), see the details here. Deadline: September 10.

2. Wednesday blog posts:

Co-leader Kathryn Dart reported on the annual encaustic conference in several blog posts here. Every Wednesday she’ll be posting new content, so be sure to keep an eye out for her weekly articles!

Busy bees and waxaholics,

Shannon, Kathryn and Melissa

Week of August 24

newbyart — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:46:22 +0000

Clarity by TangledSkyStudio

Announcements:

1. Upcoming podcasts:

We’ve been talking about ways to market yourself and your art online. Want to join the conversation before our podcasts get launched? Give us your input here.

2. New Bees Knees:

Melissa has been posting about beekeeping and artists who work with the theme of bees. Learn about an upcoming book “Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper” and more here.

Busy bees and waxaholics,

Shannon, Kathryn and Melissa

Reporting from the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference – Encaustic Sculpture

kbean — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:49:42 +0000

When I hear the word “encaustic,” my mind immediately jumps to paintings. That is why, until attending the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference this June, I had not often looked for, or even paid attention to, sculpture as a medium for the use of encaustic. At the conference I had the pleasure of attending an encaustic sculpture talk by Kim Bernard, who also showed her work at the conference.

Kim covered the work of nine artists. I will share a small sampling of these, hopefully demonstrating the range of encaustic as a sculpting medium.

First up is my personal favorite, Martin Kline. I am mesmerized by his ability to continue such an organic form as wood and do it in such an unexpected way with startlingly bright colors. Be sure to check out more of his work.

Green House, encaustic on wood, 20″ x 12″ x 12″

Sylvia Netzer creates impressively large encaustic sculptures such as this one.

Glen Gary OLY, 29 x 83 x 31

Laura Moriarty has a very interesting technique. She first builds up layers and layers of wax and color on wood, then scrapes the entire thing off and reshapes the wax into beautiful formations.

Skerry, pigmented beeswax, approx. 20 x 30 ft.

You can see more of her fascinating process in this video

Last up is Kim Bernard, who put on this talk and showed at the conference. Here is piece from her Lead and Encaustic series:

Each of these artists brings something unique to sculpting with encaustic. Do you have a favorite encaustic sculptor? Please share in the comments.

Well, this is the last of our reports from the Encaustic Painting Conference. We hope you enjoyed learning a bit through out experience, and we hope you will join us next year at he conference!

Object Challenge Results

kbean — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:32:30 +0000

This summer, a few BEE members participated in an Object Challenge. We each sent objects to another BEE member and received our own. The challenge was to incorporate whatever we received in the mail into a finished encaustic piece. Thanks to all who participated! I hope you enjoy the results

From Melissa Hronkin:

The image collaged in the middle piece was sent to me by Caterina Martinico of Santa Rosa, CA. This fun card of 4 women fit perfectly with the two “wing” pieces. It was kind of a quick decision: I knew it where it needed to be! I love the way that this middle piece with the portraits grounds the piece and gives it life beyond decoration! Thank you so much to the Beeswaxteam for coordinating this “object challenge”!

Each piece is created on a 8×8x2″ piece of lumber.

From Caterina Martinico:

I received a pattern piece and a nylon stocking from Shannon Newby. At first I was totally at a loss for what to do, but then I began to make some personal connections with the stocking and some old photos of my mother who was quite a looker in her day. I found several great vintage photos and the inspiration began to brew. I used the nylon as a textural border around the cradled hardboard and a part of the pattern piece, which happened to be a pantie pattern as the basis of the piece. From there I covered it all with encaustic medium and paint and did a photo transfer over the entire thing with a copy of the photo. At first I was completed dis-satisfied but as I got into it I found the nylon a wonderful sculptural element and began to be totally engaged. It became part of my ongoing, developing series of ancestor icons.

From Shannon Newby:

Suitcase Heart, 10 x 10 x 3″ encaustic, mixed media on panel

I got a letter in the mail from my “secret BEE” with a cute note and my object challenge: a photocopy of a heart drawing. I was intrigued and also relieved! I have been doing a lot with hearts lately (anatomy drawings much like the one I received in the mail) so I was both overjoyed and excited to delve into the object challenge. I started out with a chunky box painting I had done several weeks ago, but didn’t like the look of. I kept the layers of green, black and milky white on the painting to give it depth, but fully intended to paint over it and give it an extreme makeover. The heart drawing did just the trick! After adding a few more layers of sea-foam green and an orange / pinkish color, I was ready to try the image transfer. I wanted the transfer to be light and to really only give a starting point to the rest of the piece. So I gently transferred parts of the heart (on the top part) of the piece. Next, I took a sharpie and went to town adding lines, arrows, paper airplanes and a suitcase. For my final layer, I added tissue paper dress patterns. This softened the whole look of the piece.

I’m happy with the way this one turned out. It was invigorating to get something in the mail and to be pushed to incorporate it into my work. Lucky for me – hearts are popping up everywhere in my work – so this was a great fit for my current subject matter!

Thanks to my secret BEE for the inspiration for this new work, “Suitcase Heart.” And thanks, Kathryn – for organizing this! Sign me up to do this kind of challenge over and over again! I feel like I grew a lot as an artist! :)

From Veronique Latimer:

These two pieces, Wired (left) and Watchful Owl (right), were made collaging papers from Kathryn Dart.

From Kathryn Dart:

A Good Woman, 8 x 8

I received a nice collection of items from Deanna Wood: a vintage advertisement, two paper flowers, and some cards from a library card catalogue. The return address sticker on the envelope said “because equality is still an issue,” which is most likely what got me thinking in the direction this piece eventually took. It started with this 1930s Vogue ad for underwear. The text quoted a dialogue between a mother and a daughter, with the daughter exclaiming how her mother looked so slim, like “one of the girls.” I created the dotted pattern to emphasize the message of the ad, that a good woman looks (and acts) just like all the rest.

I’m so glad I did the object challenge, because I created a piece that surprised me. If you’ve seen my other work, you will notice that this looks nothing like it! The process definitely stretched me by challenging me to work outside my norms. Thanks, Deanna, for sending me some great items!

From Deanna Wood:

Melissa Hronkin sent me a lovely little red doily and some contact sheets from someone’s wedding photos, probably from the 50’s. This is what I was inspired to create:

To Have, To Hold
collage, foil transfer, and encaustic
12″ x 12″

I couldn’t bring myself to mess up the contact sheets, so I made copies and glued them to the board. Then I covered the board with clear medium and embedded the doily in the wax. Then I used some gold embossing foil (that a student gave me) – writing on it to transfer the foil to the wax.

Thanks again to everyone for participating! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Reporting from the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference – Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility (Part 3)

kbean — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:32:08 +0000

Hey there, busy bees!

Welcome to Part III of my report on the great workshop given by Daniella Woolf at the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility. (In case you missed it, catch up on Part I and Part II.) In Part III, we will see textile artists who could use a “medium makeover,” meaning their work/style would suit encaustic well.

Kyoung Ae Cho is a fiber artist who often burns markings into her work. Blowtorch, anyone?

Aura I, Corn leaf, silk organza, thread

Penny Young is a sculptor and installation artist. Can’t you imagine this impressive piece held together with wax?

Clerical Vortex

Clerical Vortex, detail

Next up is Will Marino. Here is a piece from his “paper series.”

Ice Flow, cut paper

Lastly, let’s look at Lisa Kokin’s sewn photographs.

Best Wishes, sewn found photographs, batting, paper

I know I have my own personal wish-list of etsy artists I would love to see use wax in their work. Who do you think should become an encaustic convert?

(As always, click here for Daniella’s online version of the talk.)

Week of August 3

newbyart — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:14:17 +0000

Beautiful by LVHDesigns

Announcements:

1. Marketing your art in a tough economy:

What networking and marketing tools do you use to promote your artwork? Flickr, Twitter, Facebook? How do you get your work out there and sold in a tough economy? Have you ever wondered if having a Ning account will help you at all? (or don’t have a clue what that is?)

If you have questions and thoughts for us on this topic, we want to hear from you! You can respond directly to this email, or join us in our team forum here. We’ll put together a series of helpful podcasts on building up a web presence / marketing tips based on what you said + things we have found to be helpful. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!

2. Object Challenge results:

Be on the lookout for a post soon about the BEE team’s summer Object Challenge results! Thanks again to all who participated!

Summer heat and melted beeswax,

Shannon, Kathryn and Melissa

Week of July 27

newbyart — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:12:55 +0000

Bella Bird by SoulArteEclectica

Announcements:

1. Marketing your art in a tough economy:

With many of us trying to make ends meet in a struggling economy, we’d like to put together a series of helpful podcasts on building up a web presence / marketing tips. We have opened up the forum for discussion on things like social networking sites, Flickr, Twitter, etc. We will compile any notes, questions and suggestions from you all (along with what we find), and put together a podcast series set to launch in about 3 weeks. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you in our team forum here.

2. New features on our team site:

Believe it or not, we are still giving out secrets and tips from our time spent at the June Encaustic Conference! Be sure to look for Kathryn’s articles on workshops, presentations, tips, etc now posted weekly on our website! And you may have noticed our newly added page “The Bees Knees!” Co-leader Melissa Hronkin will keep us informed on all things bee-related!

Summer heat and melted beeswax,

Shannon, Kathryn and Melissa

Reporting from the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference – Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility (Part 1)

kbean — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:59:52 +0000

While at the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference this June, I attended many great talks and demos. One of my favorites was a talk given by Daniella Woolf, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility. She described a “textile sensibility” as anything that references cloth, so the piece does not have contain cloth, only reference it, to qualify.

This workshop was a wonderful overload of visual stimulation and inspiration (we were shown the work of 40+ artists), so I have decided to do this post in parts. For Part 1, I want to share a few artists who incorporate actual textiles into their work in some way (click on artist’s name for images on individual website).

Daniella Woolf incorporates textiles into encaustic by sewing objects together and coating or embedding them with the wax medium. A piece I find particularly stunning is Beauty at My Feet, which features eucalyptus leaves sewn together.

Cari Hernandez mixes encaustic with silk in this beautiful piece, Four Channel.

Lorrie Fredette combines encaustic, sculpture and textiles in this installation called A Pattern of Connections.

In Part 2, I’ll share artists from Daniella’s talk whose encaustic works allude to textiles. Click here for Daniella’s online version of the talk.

Have you tried including fabrics in your encaustic works? Any other artists who do this that you’d like to share?

One A Day Project

newbyart — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Letter from the Desert, by Veronique Latimer (as part of the One A Day project)

Annoucements:

1. Forums and podcasts on web presence:

We’ve been getting some great discussion in the forum about if having a portfolio site is helpful….. we’re hoping to do a podcast series very soon on marketing yourself as an artist by building up an online presence. If you haven’t joined the conversation, you can join us our team forum here. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions you’d like us to report on in our podcasts (specifically, on web / techie stuff), let us know. We’d love to get feedback so we can make this upcoming podcast series relevant and helpful to all our lovely BEEs!

2. Summer Object Challenge update:

If you had signed up to participate in our summer object challenge, please be sure to finish your pieces (and include a photograph and mini description) to Kathryn (via email – barnes.kathryn@gmail.com) asap. We’d like to compile the challenge results soon. Thanks and we hope you have had fun with the challenge!

3. One A Day project update:

A few of our team members have taken up the challenge to create one piece of art a day for at least two weeks! Veronique Latimer (as seen above) among others has taken up the challenge! Please be sure to check out members Kari Young and Melissa Hronkin’s blogs to see their one-a-day works as well. It’s exciting to see how these artists have pushed themselves over the summer!

Summer heat and melted beeswax,

Shannon, Kathryn and Melissa