Daddy's Christmas Angel

Friday, March 11, 2011

Encaustic Artist Workshop - Loving Art

Because I love art, artist workshops intrigue me--especially those close to home. Arts Alive!, our local support group for the arts, has a marvelous schedule of artist workshops. One of my favorites is the Encaustic Painting Workshop, sponsored by the Virginia Museum and taught by Karen Eide.

Karen drives her giant van into town and sets up an array of heating ensembles, trays of molten wax (both bees and paraffin), lumps of wax colored pigments, piles of paint brushes, heat guns, mat board pieces, books, and much more. She demonstrates some of the techniques for painting with this beautiful hot colored wax, then for five hours her students get to experiment with the process.

Molten wax heats on hot plate
Projects in progress
Heat gun fuses wax
Some students may choose to use a collage technique incorporating photographs, drawings, beads, sequins, and many found items. Others just enjoy discovering what happens as colors mix in transparent overlays. Whatever techniques are chosen, the entire process is a lot of fun!

1 comment:

Karen said...

Monti! It was great having you in the workshop again. The paintings seem to just flow out of you. Thank you for the write-up!