Category Archives: Workshops

Oui, Je Vois!

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Oui je vois-Art Journal Page-Linda Lenart McNulty (800x591)

Oui, je vois! -Art Journal page by Linda Lenart McNulty

Discovering Art Journaling was for me, like seeing a path, and so the next set of pages in my Art Journal is called “Oui, je vois le chemin!” or “Oui, je vois!” “Yes, I see the path! Yes, I see!”

The precious face of the creature in flight, I found in a magazine last year. She has an expression like my daughter’s when she was young, and is a little peeved about the journey even though the path has finally shown itself from such a height.

I had been playing around recently with a type of hollow script I invented when I was a teen, and I wanted to get back to my roots so I “let it come” as Pooh says, into my work today. I am sure I wasn’t the only inventor of this hollow script, but there is my version. I’ll be using and teaching that to whomever likes such a thing.

Another little piece of nostalgia for me was a chocolate wrapper diamond I saved from a day when I offered chocolate to students in my encaustic workshop (must have been valentine’s day).

I also sculpted up a little head for a Santos to come. I will post photos on that process tomorrow or Monday.

Thanks for checking in!

-Linda

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 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

Cavo-Relieveo Workshop: an exploration into coolness

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Linda Lenart McNulty cavo-relieveo 8 (800x600)

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Wow. Cavo was cool. I had done this technique on my own in the past, but presenting it in a workshop setting really launched some cool ideas.

I presented ideas on using photo-transfer, collage, and intarsia on the bottom layers of the cavo painting, laying the leaves and stencils on top, and finishing with opaque layers of pigmented wax. The effects were stunning!

Everyone had their own discoveries-

Marianne, a fiber artist, went for crisp edges and vibrant color;

Lynn experimented in color with her usual genius, reversing the cave effect in one painting for a raised relief, and playing with metal leaf;

Elizabeth, a metal worker, burnished her leaf on so strongly… that we had a laugh, it was as if she was working in metal, as the wax took the shape of an actual leaf!

Mershona, an art therapist, oooed and ahhhhed over the wax, coaxing leaves out of the wax like buried treasure for a mind bogglingly layered effect!

And at the end, during clean up, a local wasp gave up the ghost and dived into the vat of wax headlong, giving itself to the wax, so that Elizabeth could fish it out and display it on her finished piece. What a wild ending to a very cool workshop!

Maybe we’ll see you at the next one!

Thanks for dropping in!

-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

Monthly & Locally

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Spring, where are your springs! When will you spring upon us! Have we begun to rise from our winter slumber?

Winter Slumber? Are you kidding? If your winter was like mine, you were running nonstop- jumping on and off planes and generally making a disaster area in your studio! Well, I’ve decided to dig myself out of the pile of suitcases and have set my mind to teaching only locally for a while.

With this in mind, I have written up my schedule of  workshops for the year. These are two-day workshops, once a month- the last weekend of each month. I will be presenting fundamental encaustic painting techniques in a series of fun, creativity-boosting weekends.  I do hope this will encourage some of you out-of-towners to travel out to my cute artists town, where things are always hoppin’ and stay for one of the weekends of encaustic painting! Workshop sizes are always small, so you’ll get tons of individual attention.

Also currently, I am sorting and packing everything in my house, as we are putting our beautiful country home up for sale, and moving off to town (two whole miles away!). We’re trading our fishing pond full of bullfrogs for sidewalks, and our fields of waving grasses for cafes, I suppose.

And then, when the dust of this furiously busy season has settled, I’m hoping to find myself sipping lemonade, and again listening to birds and bees, lounging merrily with artist friends, and walking to concerts and performances. This is my mind’s reward for all of this tearing up and stripping away of my house and my schedule. I want to get to the core of the good stuff. For me, part of that will be teaching Encaustics- monthly & locally.  I am really excited. Anybody want to buy a cute country house 2 miles from an artsy college town? It comes with a Studio!

Thanks for stopping in!

-Linda

 

 

Encaustic Wabi Sabi Workshop – Warm and Wonderful

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Encaustic Wabi Sabi-Linda Lenart McNulty (640x385)

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Last Saturday the art room at Oberlin’s historic FAVA building was transformed into an encaustic paradise, when ten artists from the Cleveland area took my Encaustic Wabi Sabi workshop!

The students felt like kids at a candy store, only the candy was stained tea bags, onion skin and mulberry bark paper, dead flower heads, petals and leaves, small twigs and porcupine quills!

There was an overflow of oil paints, encaustic medium, smiles and laughter as the students shared colors, visions and surprises on their waxy griddles.

Every student found their own approach and their own voice in their color and textural choices they made, and no two artists’ work looked alike!

After demos and a good three hours of play, the students packed up their goods and we all enjoyed looking at and sharing in each others’ work. I was truly amazed what the students invented and developed in their short time together and I am looking forward to running this workshop again.

Actually, in the approaching 4 week long series of encaustic classes I am facilitating at FAVA, beginning next Saturday, first thing on the agenda is to show the students how to turn their beautiful Wabi Sabi Collages into Paintings. There are still a few seats open if anyone is interested in signing up. In the class series, all of your questions will be answered on encaustic art and process, and there is plenty of time to stretch out and find your voice, so to speak. It’s a good place to start your encaustic journey. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

–Linda

To Bead True Blue 2014

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Tucson (640x404)

To Bead True Blue is one of my favorite art retreats. Tucson is a perfect balmy and sunny 70*; women arriving have a skip in their step as they wheel through the halls with their little supply suitcases, with high expectations. Those who come, take workshops to unwind and release their spirits and voices. You can feel the hallways and classrooms humming as each individual sets off to make their artistic dream come true. The teachers are kind and funny, friendships and bonds are instantly forged by all, and the classrooms overflow with the energy of connecting and creating.

And this year my Encaustic students are in for a real treat.

I am teaching four Encaustic workshops, each of them highlighting a different aspect of Encaustic technique, and they’re all going to be energizing and fun! The coolest thing is that this year we’ll do a full Encaustic painting in two of my classes (Word Shield and Cryptic Encaustic) and then translate the painting into a piece of jewelry.

And my classes are all 6 hours this year, so we’ll have more time to play, expand our skills, discuss ideas and share without the rush.

Wearable Encaustic Shrines is on February 2nd. In this workshop we will use tins and bezels to create a variety of small shrines using Encaustic casting, pouring, collage, and faux-finishing techniques with colorful Encaustic wax inside the bezels and tins. And I’ll show you some fun ways to make raised and recessed areas in the wax that are very shrine-like. 

Word Shield is on February 3rd. In this workshop we will play with layering and scraping Encaustic wax colors to get an antique look, I’ll show you how to photo transfer an image onto the painting (for those who want a portrait under their script), and then we will write in metallic script on the surface of the wax- we will do this process first as an Encaustic painting, then as a piece of Encaustic jewelry .

Cryptic Encaustics is on February 4th. In this workshop we will play with layering beautiful transparent colored Encaustic wax, then use deep stamping and excavating on the surface- first as an Encaustic painting, then as a piece of Encaustic jewelry.

Waxing Images is on February 5th. In this workshop we will make multiple Encaustic pendants, playing with colorful imagery, using wax inlay (intarsia), and wax photo transfer. These pendants are a lot of fun, as the size is very unintimidating and the technique very childlike and friendly.

I am really looking forward to meeting my students and having some Encaustic fun so I hope you’ll sign up (go to my workshop page) and we’ll see you there!!!!

-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