Tag Archives: Linda Lenart McNulty

The Santos as a Mirror to Ourselves

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Santos Awakening

Historically, it is said, that a Santos was placed in the center of a household to stand in as priest, as a representation of one’s intention to remain under the care and guidance of an actual priest or minister, who was far away from one’s European home. This traditional Santos held a straightforward posture, and denoted a simple expression of reverence.

The contemporary Santos that I am creating in this body of work boost my spirit in a way that urges me and prompts me forward when I gaze on them. They are like bright spiritual reminders that I am the light of God, as I move about my day.

And each one has the potential to be an incredibly personal shrine or talisman for its owner. A Santos, as a talisman, has the capacity to hold not only our hopes, dreams and visions, but also reflects its owner back to itself like a living mirror, calling us to continuous growth and transformation, prodding us to be all we can be. 

I propose that today’s Santos stands as a personal altar of truth, reminding us that we are more than what we believe ourselves to be. The Santos, as a mirror, urges us to rise up to meet and act from within our higher selves. We are, each one of us, God’s Priests and Priestesses- vessels of hopes, dreams, prayers and yearnings to manifest our best selves for ourselves, for our families, and for God’s own pleasure and delight. Our Santos reflects this back to us individually, but shows us that by lifting ourselves, we lift us all.

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

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

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

Local Encaustic Workshop… an encaustic escape!

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We’re having a relaxing and rejuvinating time over at FAVA, the local arts center in beautiful Oberlin, Ohio! Six local artists have come to play in wax and unwind their minds on six consecutive Saturday afternoons; and while the town rushes around below our second story window, we hide ourselves away, layering warm encaustic wax, fusing with torches; and playing with color, design and texture in our encaustic paintings.

Each artist has forged a path of exporation all their own, with direction and guidance…and lots and lots of mixed media and tools.

Each afternoon I demonstrate a few techniques, which are absorbed and reinvented by some, and left for another time by others, as they continue on a path laid out for them from the week before.

Jacob and Julie are furiously productive on their shared griddle, their limbs a blur, painting, fusing and burning in with fire; texturing and building up layers of waxy color.

Jacob is working in reliquaries, bringing in bits of his hair and his childhood teeth to bury, or objects to cast or build upon. One very notable thing about Jacob: each week he chooses an art book from FAVA’s extensive library and uses the artistic styles and palettes as inspiration. His work is an ever evolving experiment, and we love seeing what he has come up with by the end of each session!

Julie has been layering images of her ancestors in pale, muted colors, using phototransfer, mark-making, and collage techniques. She seems to be always one step ahead of the lessons and isn’t afraid to forge her own path, jumping in with both feet! (She is Jacob’s mother so you see where he gets it!)

James and Elizabeth share another warm griddle. Their table is ponderous and meditative, sitting next to the blur that is the J & J table.

James is an Origami Guru and pioneer, and everything he touches morphs into geometric shapes and infinite cycles of pattern upon pattern. You’ve heard of King Midas? Yes, well James intricate encaustic paintings have become gold in his hands. He builds up layers and masks in line and form.

Elizabeth, a local sculptor, is all about texture and process, and has slowly and steadily been uncovering what this encaustic painting is all about. Once she discovered layering in and building up tea, she was a gonner and found her encaustic voice.

Cara and Lynn share the last griddle, and their table is even more ponderous and zen-like.

Cara, an oil painter and master of the drawing, plays with curving and collaged organic forms, and has really taken to slowly incising thin lines in layered wax, which excavates surprise patterns and color.

Lynn, a colorist with a painterly style, is deliberate in her exercises, trying out new techniques, and applying her new-found knowledge into her paintings, which have beautiful, subtle color musings, and tiny detail.

We all look forward to these Saturday Play Dates, coming together with a sigh of relief after hectic weeks, unwinding and encouraging each other while we work, unpeeling the stress and reveling in our laughter, joy and playful experiments. It seems I should call this workshop, The Encaustic Escape!

– Linda