Back to the Wax Before the Year Runs Out
Ever since I came back from a brief trip to Alaska I've been wanting to do an encaustic piece or two. The light there is so different from the light here in Arlington, Virginia. I thought it would be fun to experiment with some of those muted Alaska-winter colors. Also, it's cold outside and working with encaustic helps warm me up!
I found a couple of round wooden panels in my stash of encaustic supplies and taped off the edges. I'll go back and paint the edges of the two pieces when I'm finished. Usually I use acrylic gesso and then a couple layers of acrylic paint in a color that complements the encaustic paint.
Because the two photographs I want to transfer are winter scenes, I applied two layers of Holy Grail encaustic gesso in warm gray. I recently bought a jar of Holy Grail from Evans Encaustics and this is the first time I've used it. It goes on very smoothly and dries quickly. It comes in all sorts of colors, too, so it's hard to choose!
Next I applied three layers of clear encaustic medium, and between each layer I buffed the surfaces with an old undershirt. (My husband cleaned out his drawer after receiving new undershirts for Christmas so I have quite a few to use in the studio.)
I added some encaustic paint in colors similar to what I see in the photographs I want to transfer. I also added some oil stick over the top of the wax, blended it with my fingers lightly dipped in linseed oil, and carefully fused the layer. A couple more layers of clear encaustic medium and this is what the pieces look like so far:
Time for a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cup of tea. I think I'll transfer the photos a little later. It can be a fiddly process and I want to make sure I can concentrate! Stay tuned....
