Now in Print!

The exhibition catalogue for The Diptych Project is now in print on Blurb.

Artists on the west coast paired up with artists on the east coast to create collaborative works in encaustic. Each artist in the pairings created one half of a two panel painting (diptych) and then completed the dialogue as the work was then sent to the partner artist to create the other half.

News of the catalogue has reached me well after the event - c'est la vie!

My painting, Enter, (on the left) was sent to an artist (S. Crabtree) on the east coast and exhibited as, Enter-Exit, at Whitney Art Works in Portland, ME:
My painting, Open Road, (on the right) was my answer to the collaborating artist's work and shown as, Traffic-Open Road, at the Brian Marki Gallery in Portland, OR:

So, What Does a Year Bring...?

Lots of things happening since my last post - (a whole year ago!!?? - wow!)

The world is going through a crazy time and the media loves the darkness of it all - so, I've turned off my news (literally cancelled satellite) and instead focused on optimism, hope, what I can do for others and on things I'm grateful for.

I've mainly immersed myself in my little son's fresh discoveries and renewing my sense of wonder about the world and the plethora of things I have to be grateful for. Beyond the dearest things, like family, friends and food - the ability to create, the time to create, the paint and tools to do it - my list reads like an inventory of the most simple things around me as I sit still.

I just completed an Open Studio and am happy many paintings found new homes. The compliments that I heard...
"You're paintings are so calm and peaceful" to "I could look at this all day", to "Wow, the way you think is scary!" ... Scary? Since, I know the source, I took that as a compliment. It all really touched me and made the effort to show work so rewarding.

Beyond my sappy reflections.. ehh-hummm! I have new work and will post a few images here. I've updated my main website with a slide show of New Paintings - but have yet to completely get my site up-to-date. I'm looking for a good site template that I can easily update, create automatic thumbnails, painting details and the like. I read about new artist software through a Google search that led to The Lazarus Corporation so, I'll keep checking on that.

So, here's some new ones and updates on last year's series. Enjoy and link through to New Paintings to see other works!

Best of holidays and all good things to you and your family,
Roxanne

A few from my new series - Water World:





Two more finished from the gem stone series:

Up For Air

I've been working the craft... doing the art. Thinking, planning, sketching - I've got enough pieces planned to keep me in the studio for a couple of years. Thank God I didn't have a mirror when I emerged recently (ever see "Throw Mama from a Train"?)

Anyway - up for some air, so here's a quick update. The panels in yellow will complete a series of nine that I began in early summer - a group focusing on texture and color...

My next two groups are laid out and ready. I've begun on the next nine 7"x7" 's and have the sketches done and some of the sublayers applied (below is an early photo). They are also in the gem series, but use cast wax and sculpted wax and additional wood shapes applied to the panels. It's so fun sculpting the wax and pushing the limits of a 2D piece! I feel like I've been playing around like a kid all summer. I've done more sketching and planning for this series - I typically work intuitively and let a painting play out without logical intervention - so that's been a little different.

After those are completed, I'll start in on a new seires in encaustic - getting back to my aspen paintings (that I do in acrylic) instead using sculpted wax on larger panels - 16" x 16" up to 24" for now.

The Clock's Ticking!

The open studio event is coming up so fast! One more thing to check off the list - design the ad for the tour directory. Here is a snapshot of what we came up with...



Blog about open studios at Open Studio Events (or in AZ - Open Studio AZ)

Encaustic News...

Beverly, Massachusetts (a few miles north of Boston) was the lucky town for the first annual Encaustic Conference held at Montserrat College.
301 Gallery, Encaustic Conference, Montserrat College

This revival of the encaustic process is so great for artists working in the medium - hopefully, it will push prices for supplies to become more competitive, clue in suppliers to carry the tools we need (so we're not scrounging in scupltors boxes, rifling through ceramic tools and driving the Home Depot help crazy - although, I'll still probably go to off beat channels to find cool stuff to use!)

This is one of those events I tack to a future calendar - for when my son gets a bit older. Meanwhile, I'll hear from my friends at IEA, Linda Womack (check out her new book!), Daniella Woolf, Joanne Mattera and check out the promised report from Deanna Wood to get my fix.

encaustic conferenceencaustic painting

2 Down, 16 to Go...

These two are basically finished. I've got 18 boards, so I'm going to use them up and create a 3 x 6 grid of 7" panels. That's the plan anyway... Of, course I may change my mind along the way!



Back to painting...


encaustic painting

Ready for Excavation!

I have a few pieces ready for the first scraping - whew! These each have about 5 layers of colors, pthalo blue, rose madder, indian yellow, egyptian violet, a bit of white, burnt and raw sienna... not necessarily in that order, some mixes and not all on one painting...

Here's a look...

This one, I've taped up - ready to float a layer after I scape a bit...
all images - ©Roxanne Vise - works in progress