The poppies blow.....

Here is the first picture I did in yesterday's encaustics class.  I've entitled it "the poppies blow" which is a phrase from the famous "In Flanders Field" poem.

What doesn't really show up in the photo but was my idea behind the piece is that the amount of texture increases as you come down the picture. So the sky has no texture, the green fields increase in texture and then the corn field with poppies has the most texture in the wax. 

It was created with beeswax, pigment and resin using some over-fusing for the sky to create a blend of colors then minimal fusing for the highly textured areas.

I also rubbed some oil paint into the corn field area to give a little more depth to the texture.

It taught me a lot; I got to try different techniques so was happy with it as a sampler.

My mum's first encaustic was entitled "Sun Rise". Hers seems more watercolor in style to me and she did some removing of wax and scratching in the wax for the trees, and then rubbed in some oil paints to highlight the branches etc.

In our last few minutes of the class we both also tried applying aluminum leaf to the wax. Here is mum's and she also applied graphite:

 

I'll show my aluminum leaf painting on Friday for my "bird a week" challenge - although you can get a glimpse here, in a photo of me and my mum.  It was great class to share together.

                                       

Another new class today - Encaustics

I'm keeping up with my New Year resolution of being more experimental and trying lots of new things! Today I took a class in encaustics at Fabrica de la Aurora - something I haven't done before and never really knew that much about.

My mum and I took the class together, taught by Rae Miller.  She is a delightful teacher and made the morning a real pleasure.

When you look at the pigments you can use - who could resist:

Such rich colors

We learnt how to apply the wax with pigment and resin to create different effects - working with textures or smooth, over-fusing or regular fusing, adding metal leaf, adding oil paints, etc etc.

It was fascinating and a good chance to just give it all a try.

 

Tomorrow, I'll show you one of the paintings I completed using the colors above.   I also did a quick painting at the end of the class which was for my "bird a week" challenge, so I'll show that on Friday.

I love giving all these new techniques and media a try!  This afternoon I had another class too - but more on that later......  You just can't keep me down!!! :-D