layers of wax

This is a mixed media painting I've been working on.  The dog is made of some cool vintage fabric I had.  You can see the background started just white, and the surrounding background was made by adding layers of colors and fusing and mixing the colors with a heat gun.  

At this stage I started to add some rice paper that I had painted and also do some incised lines.  I started to manipulate the white background with some coral colors too. I gave the dog a collar, and also some more colors and lines.Today, I added some stenciled raindrops on the white ground, and gave the dog some fur.  It's a lot of additive marks, and a lot of scraping.  There will be more layers on this painting before it is finished.  

Finished painting.

Awesome student work!! Next class starts in August!

I had a great time teaching my last encaustic class.  It was a small class of just 2.  My students, Cynthia and Carrie, both had done a lot of art in the past but this was their first try at encaustic.  It's exciting to see how the medium can change your way of thinking about painting.

These two paintings are by Cynthia Cudaback.  She comes from a marine biology background, as you can see in the piece above.  Along with the encaustic paint she used magazine cutouts and three dimensional elements to create this painting.  The painting below is also her creation.  It represents the four seasons.  She always does her snowflakes with six points, as this is how the occur in nature.  The chemistry behind the water molecule is what causes snowflakes to form with six points, and it also is what makes life on earth possible.  So, from now on, my snowflakes will also be six pointed, because when you make a six pointed snowflake you are showing gratitude to mother earth.

 The painting below is by Carrie Graham.  She layered and fused the encaustic paint to create the watery feel to the background. Then she painted the lily pads, using the incised line to outline them.  She also added collage elements along with rice paper paintings of koi fish.

If you are interested in trying this versatile medium my next class starts up on August 10.  It's a series of six classes that are designed for beginners or intermediate encaustic painters.  It meets wed. nights at 7:30 at the Pullen Arts Center.  For more info, call the center at- 996-6126.

Forming ideas for future paintings

 The stairway to the field.  Just a small little piece of land downtown that I walk by on my way to the studio.  I love these old steps that lie in beautiful neglect.  I wonder what will become of this little patch of land, if someone will bulldoze it and build something.  It's in a state of flux, neither here nor there.

An old building on St Aug's campus that I love.  It's being reclaimed by nature.  If you were to walk in the threshold you would be engulfed by trees and weeds.  Incidentally, my step father in law's father used to perform eye surgery in this building.

My wildflower garden!!

 I love gardening but have rarely been able to grow anything from seed- until this summer.  Here is my wildflower garden, grown from a pack of seeds given to me by a friend.  The colors are phenomenal and I run outside every morning to see what has bloomed.  I do believe I can use some of these colors later....

Beginning of a painting

I love the new arrangement of my encaustic pallette.  Now instead of a bunch of large tins of color, I have many small tins, resulting in many more color options.  This should really make my life easier. Wax drips and buildup between my pallette and painting.  On the table and the cord to my heat gun. 

Here are several layers of color built up on my newest painting.  This shot is before it had been re melted.  

Heat guns are fun.  

Cool effects I got through several layers of colors and several passes with the heat gun. I am using some wax that is really opaque, and some that is very translucent in order to get this look.  

Finished painting.

The mysterious sea and the new transit building

Here are some details from my newest.  It's pretty much done at this point.  

The idea for me was to paint the sea in a darker palette.  The sea is loaded with symbolism.   I think of it as a metaphor for the unconscious mind.  

The buildings on the seashore are mixed media.  I used some monoprints that I cut up, and a gouache painting.  Using encaustic paint really helps to tie the mixed media pieces together.  

The left half of the green building is a monoprint I made using the netting that you get onions in.  The right half is a sealed envelope containing a secret message.  It is completely encased in wax and painted over. 

Finished painting.

Here is the new transit building located on Poole rd. in Raleigh.  You can just make out my painting in this photo, right above the orange-y divider thing. This image was originally an oil painting-  I cropped it and it appeared on a CAT bus a few years ago.  Little did I know, they had saved the image.  A few weeks ago I got an email from the transit people wanting permission to use this in their new building.  I was thrilled to have my work permanently installed!  

Here you can see it a little better.  I am told the art will be lit up really nicely at night.  I am hoping to go by soon at night and get some photos.

Here, you can see it from the first floor, walking into the building.

Here is the view from the second floor balcony.  

Winged Brother of a Cat

The Owl series is finished.  Just as I was painting these, I ran across something Thoreau had written on owls.....

.... sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I standing within a rod of him.  He could hear me when I moved and cronched the snow with my feet, but could not plainly see me.  When I made most noise he would stretch out his neck, and erect his neck feathers, and open his eyes wide; but their lids soon fell again, and he began to nod.  I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat.  There he preserved a peninsular relation to me; thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams, and endeavoring to realize me, vague object or mote that interrupted his visions.  At length, on some louder noise or my nearer approach, he would grow uneasy and sluggishly turn about on his perch, as if impatient at having his dreams disturbed; and when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them.  Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight way, as it were, with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.  

Here is another new one I am working on.

A detail of the dog. 

The face before and after I worked on it today.  

Finished Painting.

New series started!

Here is the beginning of a new series. Seven small paintings of owls- encaustic. Owls have long been a favorite animal of mine, hence a great subject. Wise and cunning, owls offer infinite design variations. Although all of these are being done with the same color palette, different colors are emphasized in each painting. Working in a series is fun. I have ideas for a few more small series of paintings, stay tuned.

Bright colors for a grey saturday

Really, I thought we were done with this kind ofweather for now, but that's o.k. I'm pulling a double shift in the studio today, making my own bright colors. Here is a tiny piece of the painting that Keith and I are collaborating on. Oil and wax on wood. The panel is actually made from a piece of our kitchen. This will be the 4th collaboration Keith and I have done.

Here is a little bird that has made a nest. Based on a real life scenerio that I saw while walking in to my studio one day.This is an exert of a painting I just started. All encaustic.

Take my class! Come to my opening!

Here's an example of the kind of work I want to teach in my upcoming mixed media class at the Pullen Arts Center. This began as a collage of an old book, an old lino cut print of mine, one of my oil on paper paintings cut up, and some fabric. I coated it in clear wax, then made some lines on it with encaustic paint. Sound fun? Come take my class! 6 Wednesdays starting March 30th. 7-9:30 pm. 919-996-6126

ps. This is the painting I am going to donate to Artspace's Give and Take event.

Here are the postcards for my show at at Peace College! If you didn't get one in your mailbox, you must not be on my mailing list. To remedy that situation, you can send me your address- annapodris@earthlink.net.
The show's reception is Sunday March 20th from 2-4. It's up now at the Leggett Theater Gallery, and will be up until April 17th.

Everything is new under the sun

Yay! I finished my triptych, again. This time I will hang the three panels about an inch away from each other, kind of the spacing in this photo. This one will go in my Peace College show, starting Feb. 21 with the artist reception Sunday March 20 2-4pm. First day of Spring! After re-doing this piece, it was tempting to go back into more of my work, there are endless possibilities for each painting. But now I am enjoying starting some newer work.....
Dragonfly stencil and a hand. This one is just about finished, I'm sure I will put final touches on it. I had remembered a drawing of a hand, maybe from an Indian incense box, and wanted to paint it with this lady. She's bringing me good fortune.
Here is a brand newbie. I did the background colors with oils, to make a smoother color transition. I wanted to do one with overlapping line drawings. Also I am doing more paintings with people in them now.
A detail of the above painting. The encaustic linework actually hovers above the painting encased in a layer of clear wax. That's how it's able to cast it's own little shadow...
The sea at night. I haven't seen it lately but in dreams. I do miss living near the ocean.
Here is another painting I started out in oils, to have a smoother color transition from light to darker. Inner peace.
This one has been through a lot of changes. I sometimes find the smaller pieces even harder to make than the big ones. You can see through the wax to almost all the layers here, so you get an idea of the process just looking at the painting's surface.
And another one that has been painted and scraped back over and over again. Under all the wax is a piece of vintage fabric.

Looking through a glass onion

A few glazes later. I am trying to keep this one really loose.
Two new ones. They're probably 80% done. Although, it's hard to know. I'm not sure what's next for these....
These are details from my triptych that I am re-doing. Birds are partly made of vintage fabric.
This is a strange cat lady. She just appeared there, she's not fully realized yet but she does have some big hair.
This is the top corner of the 3rd panel of the triptych. Like a little kid, I want to put the sun right in the top corner!

Oil glazes and more

I have been doing a lot of glazing with oils, something I haven't done in a while. The way it works is the light passes through several thin layers of oil color to the white canvas or panel, bounces back to the eye to create lush layered colors. The top painting is just in it's first phases, it's an oil on canvas. The ones under it are on panel. I am just thinking of them as backdrops right now. I'm now sure what the subjects will be for these paintings, I'm not sure if I will continue them in oils or switch to encaustic.

One thing I love about winter are gorgeous tree skeletons. This one reaches out to me.

This is an old friend that I am "re imagining". I thought it could use a new sky. We'll see what happens.

Come take my Encaustics Class!

These images are all student work being done in my last encaustics class at the Pullen Arts Center. The class ended up being a lot of fun- I think everyone did very well, especially since most of them were trying encaustic for the first time. It can be tricky to learn, but it's very fun! There are so many possibilities with mixed media.
The way I like to structure the class is to teach a new technique at the beginning and do a demo. Then I turn everyone loose to try it out. I encourage experimentation! I always bring a few of the things I am working on to give examples of what I am talking about, too.
We use stencils, incising, and collage among other things to bring our paintings together. Encaustic can be painted on very opaque, or translucent. It can be scratched and scraped. The final piece usually has lots of layers, and the wax gives it a very unique look and texture.
Everyone approaches this medium differently, and it's especially fun for me to see the students adapting the medium for their own purposes!
The colors of the encaustic paint are especially vibrant, and will never fade or yellow with time because the beeswax acts as a preservative.
All kinds of papers and fabrics can be collaged into the wax, which also preserves paper.
The linework technique is especially fun and challenging. It is done by incising into the wax.

The next class starts up on Feb. 2nd at 7pm. You can read more about it on the city website.

The Biggie

Here is the painting I have been working on. I have enjoyed painting and losing track of time with this painting- a phenomenon that doesn't happen with every piece. Now, I am going to use my tiny brush to add more detail to the plants and to everything. Maybe some glazes, too.

Soliloquy

Here is the painting I have been devoting massive amounts of time to as of late. The house on the left is a dog house, on the right is a cat house. I painted this one going from left to right. The house in the middle isn't fully realized yet, neither a cat or a dog house. I'm not sure what it's theme will be or if it will have one. Just imagine this painting with much brighter colors, this photo is a little dim. It's probably 90% done now. I am at the fun part where I put in tiny details with a tiny brush. Really, it's fun.

Arches and cones

Here are some rice paper paintings, all ready to be sealed into an encaustic painting. I love how porous this paper is, letting the wax fully permeate, actually changing color to slightly darker, as if it were still wet.

A church on a street that I love. This church has a perfect arched window.

An oil painting I have started. I'm painting the background first. I originally envisioned a cityscape for this canvas. Now I'm thinking a meadow. We'll see.

Supernatural

Here are the two latest. I finished both of these paintings this past week, both have lingered in the studio, languished in the studio, for months. Each one presented certain compositional and conceptual challenges. The painting above presented more of a conceptual challenge. I was pretty much done with it but I felt like it was boring, or missing something. I was painting on it one day, not really thinking about it too hard, and adding in horses and owls and other animals in the buildings. All of a sudden it seemed to relate exactly to some things I am going through in my life. All of a sudden it took on a very personal autobiographical nature.

The painting below started out as a gouache painting on paper. Never satisfied with it, I cut it in half angularly and put each half on either side of a wooden panel, to start another diptych. the compositional problem was how to fill in the space in the middle. After several incarnations, I ended up painting trees that created a portal into another dimension.

Possibilities

Snippets of my newest work, just a few layers of color and collage down right now. Some of the subject matter is coming together just now. I have been trying to keep these open as long as possible, keeping them abstract until I was sure of just the right thing to paint. The shapes and colors of the abstract collages I was working on suggested this subject matter.





Finished Painting

Best Roots

Here are the best roots in Raleigh. They belong to the Japanese Crepe Myrtle in the JC Raulston Arboretum.

Here are 4 beginnings. 3 are just collages of painted rice paper and wax. The other is rice paper and some wax painting too.
A drawing of a deer on a panel that I plan to start painting on soon.
Brand new works. Probably finished. We'll see.

It was a pretty productive day at the studio.

Little New ones

This is my new series of small animal paintings. All done with wax. Some include fabric as well, and others have some rice paper paintings embedded in the wax. They are in various stages of completion now. I am dying to get into doing the linework in these. Scrape scrape scrape!!