Art in Nature November 2010 I went into the woods one day….

 

Persimmons in the woods...deer love these but I found them interesting in the way they all fell from the tree with a little of the branch neatly attached.  Nature is creatively beautiful.

Harvest is an event of the past; the tractors are readying the fields for the next crop to be planted in the Spring, turning the earth in rows of soft supple soil full of promise for the future.  The farm year is almost finished; life will slow for the farmers now.  A favorite pastime it going to the woods for many, the smell of fall is thick in the air, the trees are slowly giving way to nature and dropping their leaves onto the forest floor in thick crackly blankets in preparation of the winter to come.  The wind will whip the bare trees in the winter months until the signal comes to put on the buds of Spring, promise again.  Nature is a mystery, she takes care of the earth in ways we cannot comprehend at times.  I went to the woods this past weekend , hoping to see the wildlife but saw little of that, yet still had an amazing afternoon of watching nature address the needs of the seasons.  Here are some shots I took of the day.

Bend in the Road....gives way to wonder, what is beyond that bend and just out of eyesight.

Barge Lake peaceful and serene...

In the studio paint waits in tubes and jars for the promise of new life in art.  I am working again on a bit of an experiment with different gels and mediums. I am on a quest to create an encaustic wax look on my acrylic paintings.  I have many watercolors and acrylics on paper that are lying around  with no hope of seeing a gallery with glass on them, so I am attempting to find a way of framing them without glass.  I am completely in awe of soft, matte surfaces on paintings; it tends to make them more approachable and interesting to me for some reason.

 I ordered Golden’s High Solid Gel in Gloss and I am mixing it with other matte mediums to try to recreate the look and feel of the wax surface.  I have searched online and found several nice recipes for giving the encaustic look but so far they have not performed the task for me. Although Deb Chaney's was a good one and I just tweaked it till it worked for me.  ( debchaney.blogspot.com/2009/08/using-acrylics-to-create-waxy-encaustic.html).    Most of them call for a drop or two of interference gold (fine) and interference blue, I would note I am also adding a drop or two of quinacridone gold to mine for a more colorful look.  I think this mixture will definitely have a place in my repertoire of painting techniques.   I tried it on top of watercolors on both paper and Yupo, and so far it works on both, you have to be sure to do an isolation coat on both though to make sure the watercolor will not run.   I then moved on to the thought, hey this might be cool as a medium to mix with my pigments and began to work on several paintings using it in that way. It is thick and it has a very stiff body to it that is truly nice on boards and paper mounted on boards.  I have had some serious fun with the attempts and it is a bit of a freeing experience to go over your work with a finish that might or might not work on them, and if it ruins it then let it dry and paint right over the top of the disaster.  It is only a painting and lying in my studio it will remain just that, but if I find a way to make it appeal to the current trend in buyers to be framed without glass, I have the chance to share it with the world.    To some this will sound like I am giving in to the current market and trends but to me it is a way to push the limits of my art and forces me to look at my work in a different way.  I don’t feel it is a copout for me to do this; but if it makes any purist in the waterworld uncomfortable, I would recommend you steer clear of it because it is like many fun things in life quite habit forming.  Here a few of the endeavors in gels and mediums done with this method.  They were all at one point watercolors on paper or synthetic paper.

Notes to Myself by Cathy Hegman 

  this began as a watercolor on aquarius paper.  I used a cradled board and painted the surface with hues that would enhance the painting and then coated it with the medium mixture that resembles encaustic, I let it dry thoroughly and  then put several layers of glazing over it using the medium along with matte medium to get it to a finish I felt gave me the look I wanted for the painting.  Also in the end I mixed 1/2 gloss varnish with 1/2 matte varnish to give it a final 2 coats to protect the painting.

the first layer of the encaustic look a like medium over the painting, Notes to Myself it was nice but I felt it looked cold and way too shiny for my intentions, although the texture was almost intoxicating.

I added a glaze or two of a mixture of quinacridone gold ,bone black,and orange red and more layers of matte medium to kill the shine of the glossy gel int he mixture.

Close up of the painting below in the first stages, This was  a watercolor onYupo with the encaustic look a like on top. I was not thrilled with this so I completely repainted the painting.  I will blog on it next month. in detail as it really gave me insight on how I work.  I got an email to donate to the Mississippi Hearts for Aids while working today and the painting will go to that organization's auction in February 2011.  I believe in synchronicity and the painting just fell off of my brush when I knew it would go to a really great cause.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone I hope it is a blessed day for you!  

Cathy Hegman AWS,NWS,MSWS,MOWS, SAA,SW, ISAP
www.cathyhegman.com

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