Category Archives: Encaustic Art

Charcoal Drawing and Flemish Pears

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Since teaching Drawing on Encaustic Wax, I have been playing around with approaches to the still life in my studio. What I mean by this is that I am reawakening my love of drawing still life. As artists we are so bombarded with imagery today- much of it someone else’s imagery: historical imagery or found imagery; and we forget that a portion of an artist’s time used to be just drawing or painting a still life or model in one’s studio.

I mean sometimes you just get sick of drawing from photos or pulling up google images. Well guess what- there’s a whole world of artists working from small still lives every day. But it’s the oil painters and the die-hard pencil artists. It’s just not the encaustic artists. Why?

It’s just not the way we usually approach encaustic painting. Last month, my student Jacob commented, “we should have a live model to paint!” and I said “Yes!” I totally agree.  But it seems tricky somehow, juggling our hot griddles, gloves, paints, ventilation, and working out our ideas in a chunky brush, while we keep our live model happy and our eyes darting back and forth-model to painting-model to painting. But I think it is do-able! Why not?

Since then, I have been engrossed in researching Flemish Oil Painting, and working to transfer these concepts into an encaustic approach. I thought the way the Flemish approached underpainting and layering was particularly applicable to the way we encaustic artists use layering, glazing and burnishing.

So I’ve taken the pear as my current subject (being March that seems the best option for organic form choices) and taken to daily charcoal drawings and encaustic paintings of them. I have started to share my ideas and teach a few friends my approach; and being a documenter, I am collecting a variety of processes that I hope to compile and share in a book of some sort.

If this sparks anyone’s interest, let me know with a comment. I tend to run ahead of the curve- I am pulling in ideas that are old school to oil painters and applying them to this slippery, changing landscape of encaustic art. We’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you posted. Happy Creating!

-Linda

Drawing into Encaustic Wax: Line and Stroke

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Encaustic Horn - Linda Lenart McNulty (640x336)

 

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January’s Drawing into Encaustic Wax workshop was a stimulating retreat for a talented group of artists. We played with all types of drawing materials into and onto the wax, learning what is compatible with the wax and what isn’t; how to properly layer and fuse imagery, and how to expand as artists as we integrated old & beloved drawing materials with our new found passion for wax!

Each artist found success within their paintings, using charcoal, pastel, colored pencils, oil pastel, water soluble pastel pencil, and ink.

We discussed the nature of line, how to make line more energetic, and what constitutes dynamic line. We played with color, contrasting the interchange of layering images with the building up of colorful strokes of encaustic paint.

Oil pastel was blended and fused on the surface of some paintings, water soluble crayon wedged between layers, charcoal and pastel drawings were burnished onto the surface and fused, and ink worked in as detail. We used burnishing, direct and indirect transfer techniques, and sometimes drew directly onto the wax.

We made so many new discoveries with such a variety of wax-compatible mediums that I decided we needed to continue our exploration for at least one more workshop, (and really, this is a lifetime pursuit), of delving deeper into the relationship between drawing materials and encaustic wax.

I am looking forward to February’s workshop, this month, called Encaustic Line and Stroke, where we will continue our pursuit of energetic line, along with the layering and building up of  imagery with wax-compatible materials.

I hope to see you there…and thanks for stopping in!

-Linda

Encaustic Wabi-Sabi Shrines

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Linda Lenart McNulty-Encaustic Wabi-Sabi Shrines (800x225)

 

Since taking a break from the travelling/teaching circuit, I have had more time just to play in the studio, and have been experimenting with many encaustic techniques, yet my favorite by far has been Encaustic Wabi-Sabi, especially as it applies to my Encaustic Shrines (you remember Wearable Encaustic Shrines? Well, these aren’t wearable!

The Encaustic Wabi-Sabi Shrines I’ve been making are larger, and have swinging doors, and glass windows. I have more space to play and explore the interior and exterior spaces because of the larger size. To me, they are just like making tiny encaustic paintings, only I also get to include my love of sculpture and encaustic casting!

As I create each Shrine, I enjoy the rich colors of the pigmented metal leaf, especially because here in the Midwest, my eyes get a bit color-starved this time of year! As I build up the patina and layer intense color, it emits to me a warmth; a spark of life. It gets my juicing flowing, and feeds more creativity into me. One shrine begging the question of the next shrine; each one speaking in different notes of the same song…a bright crisp song, in a place far from here, perhaps Thailand…Mexico…or the Caribbean.

The shrines themselves are very special to me, since my sister, Cheri, who passed to the other side a year ago, loved shrines of all types. We collaborated on some Shrine workshops in the few years before she passed, but we had meant to do more – in fact, we were working on two Shrine books together. One, on casting techniques for encaustic, glass and resin, and another on the history of Santos, which we both had an affinity for, with our Catholic childhood, and our traumatic memories of large religious icons hovering over us, showing us the variety of ways in which a Catholic girl could choose her martyrdom!

In a way, I feel like Cheri is in the studio with me, collaborating with me now, guiding my hand, or at least hanging out and enjoying the process. Well, Cheri, we’re finally doing a few collaborative pieces!

And with that, I’m off to the studio! Shrine-making awaits!

If you would like to check out what I’ve made so far, here is a link to my Encaustic Shrine Gallery and to my Etsy shop where you can purchase your own little burst of Encaustic Wabi-Sabi: 

Linda Lenart McNulty-Encaustic Shrine-Promise of Abraham-Detail Interior (595x800)

Linda Lenart McNulty-Crying Saint Shrine II (721x800)

Have a blessed day and stay warm!

-Linda 🙂

Encaustic Wax & Fiber Workshop: Dipping, Embedding & Layering

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We had great fun in November dipping all types of objects into encaustic wax. I gave each table their own pot of wax, and their own griddle and away we went- experimenting!

We tried two different pours – one, into the back of a cradle board, filling the recess there with wax, which made a nice, deep pool to embed into. The next, as a raised bed of wax on the front of the board- masked off, Daniella Woolf style.

If you look closely at the students’ work, you’ll see that wasps and stink bugs actually make up the flower (each to their own!), blue silk, torn ribbon-style, drapes across petals, lima beans were crushed and embedded, an entire book was dropped into the pot, along with a wasps nest, and dozens of roses… and one student stripped her parakeet naked just to get those bright feathers! Ok, really it molted, but what color!

We made a mess and had a blast!

Well, thanks for stopping in! Check the workshop page for info on upcoming workshops!

–Linda

Reflecting on Reflections & Looking toward Cavo-Rilievo

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Linda McNulty Reflections (800x416)

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After a long summer, it was wonderful reuniting with old friends in the Encaustic Reflections Workshop this September at FAVA! My favorite team of I’ll-try-anything experimenters showed up- yes, that would be…Julie and Jacob! The mother and son duet that keep us entertained. Also, the talented fiber artist, Marianne, came on Saturday to bust a few moves, while meditative Lynn fell into Picasso mode on Sunday. And I heartily enjoyed the sunny, open-to-anything disposition of my totally-new-to-encaustics-what-is-going-on-here student, Theresa, and new-to-encaustics, capable FAVA glass instructor, Sherri.

Even FAVA’s media-artist-extraordinaire, Regina, gave encaustic painting a whirl on Saturday. She was there to document our encaustic process for FAVA, but you could see the wax begin to do its work on her; intoxicating her and drawing her in, until she could stand it no longer and dove in with a brush!

I demonstrated many types of Reflective mixed media, and I was happy to see everyone incorporate areas of Metal Leafing and Metallic Transfer Scribbles and Script into their work.

Here are some images from the workshop for you to peruse. This will give you a feel of the process of the workshop, although all the photos I have are from Sunday (my apologies Marianne!).

I’d like everyone who wants to come to next month’s Encaustic Cavo-Rilievo workshop, to spend time beforehand, opening your eyes to shapes, patterns and textures all around you. Jot down what inspires you into a notebook (the fall grasses on the side of the road- the weave of a tablecloth-the shape of a pear), and take a few photos on your phone. This will give you something to launch from when we’re in class and you have every material at your disposal, but your mind is blank. That’s when an artist looks at their notebook and into the phone images gathered- and voila! You’re ready to go!

And at the last minute, let’s gather some fall leaves and grasses, for we will be making impressions from what we gather. We want to keep the ridges in the leaves, and not press them flat for this workshop, so we don’t need to gather them ahead of time. And there will be plenty to share, as always. Remember, all you really need is a ready mind and a set of hands, so come with notes, or come as you are; just come!

October will be fun! See you there!

  • Linda

Making Your Own Encaustic Medium

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When I am teaching a workshop, I am always asked about the process of making your own Encaustic Medium. I have decided to lay it all out for you here, so you can decide for yourself whether to invest in the process, or leave it to the professionals!

It’s really just a matter of deciding if you’ll be using great quantities, in which making your own would then be a good idea, and if you have the time and the interest. I personally love making Encaustic Medium. It warms me up to the play at hand; I find it relaxing…and you can’t beat the smell! Besides, I (and my students) would quickly go broke if I didn’t make it myself for my workshops. It really keeps the cost of an encaustic workshop down!

Here’s what you’ll need to do it right:

  • Unbleached pharmaceutical grade beeswax (buy at least 5 lbs.)
  • Damar Resin (1 lb.)
  • 2, yes 2 (I use 3, even better!) Electric Skillets with lid and temperature gauge
  • 1 measuring cup you can ruin (one or two cup quantity)
  • 1 Wooden Spoon you can ruin
  • 1 Sieve you can ruin
  • Microfiber Cloth (look in the automotive section of the drugstore) 
  • Paper Towels
  • Nitrile disposable gloves 
  • Optional: Silicone Mat or Silicone Bowl
  • Ventilation (I have a vented kitchen fan above my encaustic station. You might use a window with a box fan blowing out. By the way, that’s a bad plan for those of us who have actual winters!)

Here we go! Click on the first picture to get the full tutorial:

Put skillet on “warm” and add as much beeswax as you like for the ratio you are looking for. I use a 5:1 beeswax:resin ratio for Encaustic Jewelry; I use 7:1 for Encaustic Casting; I use an 8:1 for Encaustic Painting; and I use a 9:1 for my beginner Encaustic Painting Students, which is who this batch is for.
Add the Damar Resin Crystals.
Cover you skillet and raise the temperature to 150* then after the beeswax melts, to 160*. This is my station. The medium I am cooking is in the center.
Come back in an hour or so and check out the happenings. Looks like STIFF Taffy. It’s stuck to the bottom. Raise the temperature to 170* and leave it for a couple hours.
Ah…much smoother….
But not smooth or soft enough….Here’s where I spike the temperature to 200*.
Stir it for a good while. There’s no way to get it to mix without stirring the dickens out of it.
Cover the sieve while it warms. Turn the temperature up to a nice 150*.
Hey! It all fit- what do you know? That’s the benefit of heating up your sieve.
Wipe out the bottom of skillet number one so he’s ready to go again.
Cover the sieve full of medium. It takes a little time to drain through into the warm skillet. Actually, it normally only drains halfway because of the sheer height of the medium. Therefore pop your thermostat back into skillet number one…..
And transfer the sieve over to skillet number one when it’s drained halfway. This photo is of me pulling the sieve out of the first skillet after the last has drained.
Eventually I place the empty sieve into the third skillet to reuse, and I pour the two half batches of medium together. But you could just lay your sieve down on Foil, Silicone or immediately get the microfiber out of the sieve while it’s warm and into the trash. Here is the cooled, clean batch of Encaustic Medium for my beginning FAVA students. I like to label everything!

I usually make two batches at a time in my three skillets, and it’s a bit like a juggling match. If I’m really cranking, I do my last pour into a Silicon Bowl, then I wrap, label and stack my beautiful slabs. I was a little low on supplies when I made this tutorial so I didn’t give you the grand circus of wax juggling and pouring. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed yourself and maybe learned something!

Until next time! –Linda 

Encaustic Wabi Sabi

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I have begun playing around with Encaustic Wabi Sabi and I love it! The process is very loose and energetic. I have been drying out Tazo tea bags and have discovered that tea bag paper is exquisite to use with Encaustic Wax. Also, you can see I have been using the tea labels! Since I am a colorist, I have decided my new body of work will focus on the powerful use of one color (of course this one color will have many complex undertones, underpainted layers, etc.) and the forms I paint will be simple, scratchy, overworked areas of dense color and layered tea paper. I hope you like it – I really do, and I have begun to save all my tea bags, religiously drying and emptying them for my future students to play with.

I am teaching an Encaustic Wabi Sabi one day workshop at our local arts center, FAVA, right here in Oberlin, Ohio, on Saturday, March 1st, 2014. Right on the heels of that workshop will be four Encaustic Workshops (Saturdays) where I will guide my students through anything our collective hearts’ desire! Take one or all! Really, shoot out to Oberlin, Ohio if you like! I’ll be here conjuring up a world of discovery in wax!!!!!

Thanks for checking in!

–Linda