Follow me to my new Waxing Rural blog site

Well it happened! I finally changed my blog site from the long and often mistaken url for Waxing Rural to the much easier to remember url www.waxingrural.blogspot.com
This should be a live link so just hit it and let it take you to my new blogspot then replace my link and subscription on my new site.

Looking forward to seeing you there......I will be posting all of my new work there as well as my 2012 workshop schedule and I'll even be re-posting some of my stuff from here. Already gearing up for a great 2012 with cool pictures and paintings in both encaustic and oils, plus inspirations, poetry, sayings, links to sites with wonderful content, and daily life here on the peninsula.

I am also in the process of changing my web site and web host though my domain name will stay the same at www.barbaramallon.com so you can check back regularly to see when I get it up again - probably April 2012 or so.

Catch up

Lot's of work has happened between last posting and now and lot's of classes as well. Here are some of them. Several were bought before I could get them up and posted. That's a good thing! :-) I've used several techniques in these and in one of them I've recently decided to rework it into a color palette that is more similar to the series. I'll put that up shortly so you can see how effective rubbing into the surface is as well as scraping back. I like the new one even better.

Also part of the Journey series

This painting started out ok with a good idea and some interesting texture, but in the middle turned hopeless. I took an "easy" cliched way out and hated the result. So the next morning I began scraping back, inscribing in, rubbing oil into the incised areas and turned out loving the combinations. Guess it goes that way sometimes.

This one is 18 X 18 and as always, as I learn to paint larger in a medium there is a learning curve for scaling up and minimizing small details so the painting will "show" from across the room. This one does now and I love the warm colors. I've entered this and the last 2 on the blog in the IEA show scheduled for September-October to coincide with their annual conference. Haven't heard yet if any of these have juried in.

As I previewed this before hitting the publish post button, I noticed how this painting (maybe all paintings) seems drabber than it is in real life. The burnt sienna color against the rich creamy wax background just doesn't show that well.

And Another

This painting changed a number of times over the course of the work. I like it now because it contains a lot of pattern in it and the symbols have meaning to me. Also for the first time I tried carving the encaustic wax and really like the effect of it - exposing the other color underneath.

I recently went to an Art Fair and while I was walking around, one of the artists called out to me to come and get a free Rune reading which I did. Remarkably scary for being right on.

I also entered this in the IEA call for artists for September exhibit - hope I get juried in. I've now got 3 more I need to paint by August 12th.

Just as well the weather has been cold and overcast. The forecast is for a bit sunnier weather on the coast here now that the big high pressure over the midwest appears to moving east and taking the wet and cold with it.

Power of discipline

Here's one of my latest encaustic paintings. This one is 18" X 18". I've been working larger because I'm entering for shows and so there is some learning curve in scaling up the patterns and designs so they will read well large.

I'm nearly every day in my studio and the ideas seem to be flowing. Sometimes they don't work out and I have to scrape back but this one seemed to come easier. I paint to music and there are about 5 CD's that I like and play over and over. I recently tried some different music that I used to just love but the painting didn't slip into place so I've gone back to my 5 tried and true. I'll have to add more by these artists because I've found it really helps condition my mind to creative ideas and stay on a roll.

I've got 3 shows I'm entering and this one is for a fall IEA show. I'll add at least 2 others to this blog in the next several days and hopefully 3 more by the end of the month.

Latest creation

I got a commission in June to paint a little rocking chair for a new baby boy by his young grandmother who wanted some vintage aircraft and that sort of theme so I painted the patterning of propellers and flight insignias from that era. I did take some license in colors which were the colors from an already picked out mobile, wall colors and crib liners. It came out cute and hope she'll like it. I'm putting the last coat of varnish on now.

In other news, I've got an International Encaustic artist Call for Entries due on July 15th that I'm painting several pictures for, another Call for Entries for a show at Trails End Art Association in August and then another Call for Entries for a themed Icon show -August deadline -at a Seattle gallery which I'm hoping might lead to representation . Lot's of painting coming up, some of which I'll post here.

There are also a few spaces left in my beginning encaustic class to be held at Trails End Art Association on August 20th so if you know anyone interested in a great painting and relaxing weekend on the Coast, send them to Trails End website www.trailsendart.org for more information and to register. Trails End is in Gearhart which is oh so very close to Seaside and Cannon Beach and the weather is typically very nice.

Looks like the weather is going to be beautiful for the weekend and 4th of July down here.

From the studio

Here's another 8" X 8" little gem using the plaster and a more brilliant white background with black and mars teracotta theme. It actually came about because I wasn't happy with my original design so I began to scrape back certain areas and voila, I liked the reduction. As you can see I'm enjoying using the cross hatch motifs and I know I'll be using the reduction of black squares. I've got to be ordering more wax pellets for mixing up new medium in the near future and anticipate ordering in bulk.

The last 2 days have found me outside planting spring-time plants from the nursery. Honestly the weather has been too cold and rainy here until the last week and now I'm worried we'll go from cold to hot like the rest of the nation. But I did my planting and transplanting with just a few left to go tomorrow and then I'll be done. And finished before the onslaught of the mosquito pestilence that happens here every year. Still in all, even with the aches and pains of overtaxing muscles I'm enjoying being outside. It feels like I am finally breathing full lung-fulls of breath.

And another one

Here's another one which I did recently and like. Plaster is underneath to create that interesting texture and then I build up from there. Not the typical use of encaustic where you have layers hiding layers, hiding layers but I think there is room in the industry for all kinds of ways to use the medium.

Haven't named this one yet. Also 8"x8" on birch luan. I do like the image element on the upper half of the painting and want to reuse something like this in a larger painting so stay tuned.

The weather is stubbornly cloudy, a cool 59 degrees and has been this last week. Not typically warming weather we see by now but I am thankful it's not the tremendous heat of the mid and east coasts. Global warming showing it's throat. I know lots of people who don't believe it. Here it just seems to be stormier and cooler than normal. My new English laurels are barely getting green. Anyway, out to get all of our new plants into the ground this weekend.

Here's some work

So here is some new work coming out of my encaustic studio. Over plaster with the theme of simple connections and unity of three's.

Our Beginning Encaustic Class was held at The Picture Attic this Saturday and was filled, and we even had a small waiting list. We had a lot of fun and did some really amazing things with wax. We used those new "Hot Wax Sticks" from Enkaustico's and found them to be very small but very intensely colored. In future classes I'll be diluting them with some medium so they will go further.

We are planning a "Return for the Burn" Encaustic Class later in the summer and I'll announce it here as well as at The Picture Attic website. It will be an Intermediate Class and along with burning papers, fabrics, shellac and we'll be dying papers with tea, coffee and watercolors and burning them too. We'll focus on metallics - not just wax but foils, pigments and joss papers and how you can include those in your designs. We'll also go over fabric and paper hangings as well as rub on and sticky texts. So keep checking here for the exact dates.

Spring Finches

It's so darned nice to see the birds back. This time of year it's the cliff and barn swallows, the goldfinches and their cousins the little purple finches and of course the hummingbirds.

The swallows are so joyful in flight, they are mesmerizing to watch. They build their nests all over our buildings on top of our knoll so we also get to see the babies hatch and learn to fly here. They are constantly zipping around catching insects in flight and I feel like they keep the mosquitoe's at bay for at least awhile.

The finches which normally have plenty to feed on since the grasses grow very heavily here, are sometimes, like this year, a little too early so we subsidize with a thistle feeder and they frequent it heavily. We taper this seed feeding off later in the summer as the natural seeds become abundant.

Here's a look at the feeder with birds. Endlessly fascinating to watch. We had to move it from where we initially placed it - overhanging the bank - because the neighbors cats just got a little too close and a little too interested.

The Plaster "thang"

So in my studio over the retreat period I got interested in experimenting with plaster on board and how it would take the heat.

Here is one of 3 plaster pieces I did and it's such a nice material to work with. It dries fast and takes a burn really nice as you can see. I'll be doing some more with this material.

I like the whiteness of the surface as well and the plain encaustic medium goes over the surface and adheres. In keeping with the low color this type of preparation works well and adds lots of texture variety to paintings.

I've got 6 places filled for my Picture Attic class in June now and already 2 or 3 places filled for the Encaustic Class I'm teaching for Trails End Art Association. I'm looking forward to meeting the people who will be coming and seeing what the classes yield in terms of the work - it's always very rewarding. I'll take some pictures too and post them here.

After some very dreary weeks of late rain it looks like the temperature is climbing here into the high 50's and even a day or 2 of low 60's. The wind has turned to a more warm weather pattern and people are planting their gardens up. Two nights ago though it was still 37 degrees out. Spring may be around the corner and people here are breathing a big sigh of relief that outdoor activities are too. I got some gladiola bulbs and dahlia bulbs into the ground and look forward to some nice flowers this year.

Spring Cleaning

Here is a new encaustic I did from my retreat last month. It's another one of my Little Gems (8" X 8" on self framed birch panel for $150).

This one is called Red Gold Seal and I used a texture devise, a stamp, a fabric ribbon and wax plus my new Iwatani torch which helps make things much smoother than I have been able to do before.

I found out about this torch at the last years Encaustic Conference in Beverly Massachusettes at Montserrat College - this years Encaustic Conference is going to be held in Cape Cod at Truro Art Center there - if you're interested in this go to this blog and find out all about the great presentations and activities they are having this year : www.encausticconference.blogspot.com

Doing new work energized me to get my website renewed and updated so back into that well I went. Go to my updated website (website address is the same) and check it out here: www.barbaramallon.com I do have all of my recent encaustic work here so you can see the new directions I'm going.

I use a template driven website from Network Solution and it works very well and I can update it myself without knowledge of programing or program language.

You'll notice on my website that I have now joined the Trails End Art Association in Gearhart Oregon. I've missed having a cohesive community of artists to interact with and I have found them here at this great place. They own their own building which houses a gallery for the members and functions much as a Co-op Gallery and another space which functions for general meetings, art classes and just general daily meetings of artists doing great art work together. I feel right at home. Come by and see our member exhibitions which hang all month - the gallery is open Wednesdays thru Sunday 10-3 and starting in June it will be 10-5.

My teaching schedule for this summer is also posted on my website with contact and registration information but just so you know I'll be teaching these 2 Encaustic classes locally:

• 1 day Beginning Encaustic on Saturday June 4th at Long Beach, WA
• 1 day Beginning Encaustic on Saturday August 20th at Trails End Art Association in Gearhart, OR

I also had a playdate last Sunday with a friend who came over to work in my studio with me and we had a fun time waxing and experimenting. We'll play again soon Jean :-).

The weather this Spring has been pretty horrendous - we are still getting winter-like, soggy, rains and wind, with daytime temperatures running mostly in the low 50's. The advantage is it has allowed for more inside painting time without the distraction of too much gardening and yard work. So have fun in your own studio!

After the Retreat

Boy that felt good to go to my studio and be able to work pretty solid for 3 days straight. It was really more like 2 1/2 because I had to clean out the studio first, reset up one of my tables, find where I'd put all my supplies having just moved them to brand new shelves, and then just generally get into the groove of hot wax. I blew a switch and had to reset and now know what my limits are. And I'm loving my Iwatani torch. It does in fact do a better job of smoothing my layers of wax though there is some show of the underlayers of plain medium through my colored waxes overlaying. I haven't quite figured out why yet nor how I really want to deal with this opportunity to problem solve. I'll put some images up shortly from my retreat.

I also discovered that as much as I'd like to sit down to create in more comfort, it makes more sense and is physically easier to do the laying on of medium and color and the fusing standing up. Now I must think how I can alternate so I have some chair time and standing time -- and not forget the stretching time either.

Also, I'm going to be teaching an one-day Encaustic Class at Trails End Art Association/Gallery in Gearhart in August and I'm gathering some new material to teach, especially ways to incorporate representative wax drawing into paintings which often tend to be wildly abstract or collaged. Look at the sidebar for information but give me a day to get it up!

Spring Season Retreat

So what do you do when you're brimming with ideas for new series of works and want to explore some imagery? That's the best time to get into your studio and work. Call it a retreat and work just like you do in a retreat - that means put out the dog, let the cat do what cat's do, put aside every other "To Do" on your list, get some great breakfast and lunch supplies on hand with tea and cold water and pop available, and order dinner out. Time to immerse yourself in the art you create and let it take you.

For the next 4 days I'm all about encaustic. Sleep, dream, think, do and do and do! Tune in for some new works going up in the next week after my retreat is over.

Texture, texture!

One of the things I like so much about encaustic is the ability to embed a variety of papers and objects.

This 8" X 8" contains balled up tissue paper that is covered with shellac and partially burned and it stands up from the surface about 2 inches. It has lots of warm carmel and brown colors. Also, I know books and instructors out there say that really only light tissue paper can be properly embedded but here I burned some sketchbook paper making large holes and I was able to embed this, so I always say, experiment with the rules!

By the way this is called "Blister" - don't let it creep you out. It's my husbands favorite of the Burn series so far.

We've been struggling a bit on the coast here because the weather has been tootling along for the last 2 months between 57-63 degrees with lots of overcast and patchy fog which is honestly rather cool to do my best work in encaustic without a heated table. So though it's been cool and comfortable in the studio, the wax is a bit sluggish. Then last week the temperature went up to 95 degrees for 2 days then back down to 63 yesterday and today. It's hard to be happy about getting hot weather like that because it's hard to adapt that quickly to a 30 plus degree change.

However we did have some fresh grilled oysters and they were terrific! Yummm.
Happy painting!

Moving forward

With my earlier work destroyed and my new direction set, I find a calmness, a sense of rightness, and a little spark of itchiness returning to me. Curiosity, different dreaming, walk with me day and night along with scary new steps and constantly reassuring friends that I'm on the right path.

All people young or old who take drastic steps like this or who have it foisted on them always walk around for at least a little while with a huge lump in their throat, a stone in their chest wondering what life there is after their big leap.

It's a changed life and life that now can accept new visions. These moments are as close to real freedom as we can get. We can do something different though we may have to linger a while in this scary place till we know what to do. Take heart in knowing soon a new vision will present itself because the clutter is gone along with new energy to carry it out.

In the meantime, I've moved my studio to my garage totally (this would have been really overwhelming without the new energy I mentioned above) and am starting some larger pieces than this 8" X 8" piece called Copper Pit which has been Sold.

At the recent international Encaustic Conference in Beverly Massachusetts, founded, organized and led by Joanne Mattera , I had the great opportunity to hear a 1 hour talk on working large from Kandy Lozano. Kandy is an artist making large encaustic pieces and a gallery owner of Martin & Lozano gallery located in California. She generously shared her own process and tool and substrate changes required when she started working large and added information such as what is required for storing, packaging, showing, representing size on a website and shipping those pieces. Such a rare person to be confident in her own work and forthcoming about the journey. Thank you Kandy.

So I'm going to be putting some of her tips to work and I'm going to be starting a body of work that I feel is cohesive and can be represented to a gallery as a unique expression. The directions will be offshoots of "Copper Pit" and the next several small pieces. I'm tremendously enjoying working in a neutral palette and it's changed the work I do. I like the simplicity and primitiveness of it.

I have to add here that living in rural Southwest Washington on the Coast has turned out to be a real blessing this year in that the weather has maintained a constant 57-63 degrees all summer so far. The marine air has rolled in during the night and stayed nearly all day every day for all of the last 2 months except for 1- 95 degree day. With the rest of the country blistering today, I can work my wax in rare comfort. All of the trees, shrubs, plants and flowers and grasses, even the dune grasses are green and well watered by the dew every morning.

Change -pain and hope

Change is often traumatic, even when you can feel it coming on as I have for almost a year now, and you have an idea what it's about and why "now". The repercussions of change are painful and exhilarating at the same time or alternating from despair to hope in the space of a day and then back again in what feels like an endless loop. But at some point it all comes to a head where you have to make a jump, and usually it feels like it's off a cliff.

Today, here, my picture is Ancient Forests - it's an 8" X 8" encaustic with shellac burn on birch luan -$125 and it's the one I brought with me to Montserrat Conference in Boston for the "Best Foot Forward" exhibit. It's fitting that this is my new beginning because it also signals the end to some of my past painting life directions.

This past week I destroyed all of my work on paper from my watercolor days and more recent acrylic work, and all the inventory I had built up for doing fairs and markets. I sold my tent and am getting rid of my tent table covers as well as most of those related art supplies. I kept some framed work and feel I will reuse canvases. I have been in deep mourning and depression about doing this but now after it's done I feel free and see joy may be around the corner.

I will be focusing on a new body of work for gallery presentation in encaustic in a relatively neutral palette with a primitive sensibility. I'm developing a theme and will use that to guide the direction of this new work. I've chosen this as my primary medium for right now - it's very physical work, there are many elements to experiment with, wax has a venerable history and I'm drawn to everything about it. I will be using venetian plaster as my ground (thank you Kandy) on wood cradles. To that end I've set up my studio in my garage where I have good ventilation, a big rough space, large tables with heating matts, overhead lights and new propane and butane tools.

As I move forward and especially as I begin to miss the intense color I am used to painting, I'm going to begin relearning to paint figurative patterned work in oil paint and again I will be developing a theme which will guide my process and development of new work. And yes I have a partially formed idea of what it will be. It's how I knew that change was coming. I kept having these ideas of work that was so different than my abstract color work from my past.

I've contracted with myself to work intensely in these directions and bring some new pieces into the world and I am feeling new energy about it. Hope you will like my new directions. Oh, and yes now I wear a respirator all the time when I paint.

Do any of you readers want to share your change stories?

Montserrat and Beyond

Well what a fantastic experience - going to the Montserrat Encaustic Conference in Beverly Massachusetts.

Here is a small shot of the exhibition of everyone who attended the conference. We were each allowed to bring one of our encaustic paintings and hang it on the board called "Best Foot Forward" . Since there were nearly 250 attending this turned out to be quite the gallery. It was on the second floor of the School building where all of the demo's and talks were being held and where all the vendor's were selling their wares. So we got to go by it frequently and see the new additions.

I met up with 2 painters from Omaha Nebraska named Tricia and Betsy and all together we took in the 4 day event which was packed full of lectures and panel discussions as well as great restaurants and the conference demo's and lectures. In addition there were 4 other gallery shows in the area sporting encaustic works - one of them called "Wax Libris" met us first thing on the morning of the first day as we picked up our registration packets in the Montserrat Library since it was a show of waxed book arts - absolutely charming and amazing. I'll be showing you pictures of this next.

And other than the show itself and the good company I kept, I was charmed and overwhelmed by the beautiful surrounding landscapes, the port and nearby Salem where we made an excursion to. More about that later. It was a cool 65-70 degrees too so just right for my northwest coast sensibilities.

And it helped me choose the direction I want to focus on more clearly as encaustic. So you'll be seeing more wax paintings as I go forward.

Countdown to Montserrat

Here is an acrylic painting I finished recently. It's 24" X 30" and I call it Mixed Message. I have it up at Azure with a price of $350.

In many ways I like this painting in that I felt freer when I did it. I used favorite processes and images like circles and the pattern of metallic gold on my small block stencil. I also wanted layers of colors from background forward and I wanted to include white since many of my paintings once layered with colors don't include this clean looking color. So I like it with the final cobalt blue strings of color to jazz it up and it has a bit of an ancient/modern combined feel to it. The eye catches on the circles.

Though I've been on an acrylic run here for awhile, I really do paint in encaustics and to that end, I'm attending the annual migration to Beverly, Massachusetts in early June to attend the Montserrat Conference. It's now only 2 weeks away and I'm busy making lots of plans to ride share and connect with friends from different parts of the country whom I've known in doing my encaustics. It will be intensive, tiring and jet-lagged, but fun and full of lots of new art work and techniques in molten beeswax. Such fun!

The only challenging part is that I now live and have adapted to basically the lovely marine climate we have on the Washington coast which is right now about 60 degrees and misting where as Boston at Logan Airport hit 80 yesterday and is projected to be 96 today with tons of humidity. How do you get through that much difference in temperature? Any thoughts readers? We are supposed to each bring an encaustic painting that would fit within a 12" X 12" space so we can a feel for what others are doing.

Gracies Dress

My husband's granddaughter just had her first birthday and so I made her this little sundress for her to wear over a little t-shirt or bare if it gets too hot. Already she is a national traveler since she will journey with her parents to Oklahoma every summer.

I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post. I finished up a number of paintings, varnished them and rigged the hangers and have now hung a 14 piece show of new work in variable sizes at Azure Day Spa in Ilwaco, Washington. All of it is mixed media and all of them are paintings except for a 12" X 12" cloth quilt and bead piece.

I'm getting ready for the big peninsula wide garage sale that is annually held May 28th through 30th and is attended far and wide drawing people from Vancouver, Portland, Longview and many places east. This is our first since we moved down here and we hope to clear the whole left side garage bay of it's treasures and trash. It has been a really overwhelming process.

And for those of you who follow this blog, I'm heading out on June 10th to Beverly Massachusettes for the Monserrat Encaustic Conference. This is the 4th annual I believe and it is an international conference of encaustic painters. Many of my aquaintances will be there for the 4 day conference which includes a full slate of demonstrations and talks and gallery showings of encaustic work. There are 3 days of post conference classes which I will not be attending. But this is my first conference for encaustic and I'm looking forward to it mightily. I'll take lots of pictures with my crummy digital and post some for you so you can see a bit of the conference.

I'm sad I won't be able to attend my friend Sue Robertson's Joyful Art Exhibit opening at Art's and Cultural Exchange in Astoria for Art Walk that will be showing during the time I'm gone but I will get in to see it after I return. I'm encouraging my art loving friends from the peninsula to go see her show as she has great, great work! It kicks off the summer tourist season too!