Dispirited Restoration

Dispirited Restoration was made at the beginning of 2016. I was struggling to keep positive. It was all about feeling destroyed and I needed to focus on rebuilding. I came home from a particularly bad day at work. I went to my studio and just started cutting canvas. The first stroke with the razor blade and I drew blood on my thumb. That was a sign to continue...just cutting and tearing. Then I stitched it back together and dipped the whole canvas into Potassium Permanganate to antique the fabric. Once dry I added a layer of plaster, oil paint, ink, encaustic wax etc...until done.

This piece is very special to me. It helped me heal...

Detail picture of the stitching and skeletal bones.

Alice Vander Vennen workshop

The Group of Eight hosted Alice Vander Vennen for a workshop in March of this year. Her methods are inspiring and how she processes and moves through her creation was fascinating for me. I find that my methods of selecting materials to use is very similar to Alice's. What I'm using in my work needs to speak to me on a spiritual level for the piece to come together. This is why it takes me quite some time from start to finish in most cases when creating. Everyone in the workshop produced multiple pieces and I currently have another piece on my table waiting for completion someday.

This piece was created using my own oil painting at the bottom, a painted and stressed dryer sheet, hand made paper, misc fabric scraps, a shell from Ireland and a wild grape vine collected from my garden. Alice encouraged me to use a piece of her copper which she had gently heated for the multiple colour combination effect. This was all hand stitched and framed within the class.

"Feather" was created due to a conversation I had with Alice. She has never been successful using a feather in any of her work. Alice felt that using a feather would in some way limit the piece to being only about a feather...that is of course if I have her understanding right. With that in mind I just had to make something with a feather. I collect feathers when they are offered, presented to me by nature. I absolutely love them. There is something so delicate yet strong about them.

This framed piece was made with scraps of fabric, art cloth that I made with burned the edges, wild grape vine from my garden and a "Feather" that had been offered to me by nature.

Special thanks to Alice for a wonderful day, her inspiration and her gifts of sharing will be long remembered.

Acceptance

My Istanbul piece has been accepted into this years Fibrations show in Burlington, Ontario. I actually thought it was bad luck when my submission came back as #001. That meant that I was the very first person to enter a piece. For once in my life I wasn't waiting until the last minute & it worked out for me.

I finally finished this piece on my bench & had enough time to clean up the studio. It's time to get into some fabric....

I haven't named it & not sure a name will be coming. I fell in love with this piece of bark with its wonderful moss & orange speckling. I actually think I collected it over the winter snow shoeing on Many-Hues badlands.
The cicada was given to me by a co-worker who actually doesn't like bugs at all. The wax worked wonderful & didn't damage the delicate wings when dipped.  A very impressive bug indeed.

Nature's Offering 2

Nature's Offering 2 is now complete...

With solid background it's not as delicate as my first piece. I'm really loving the effect of the plaster over canvas and the encaustic medium lets all the natural beauty show through.

I've attached dried poppy heads, bark, birch bark, antler buttons, porcupine quills & a pressed kale leaf from my veggie patch last year. As stated previously, the metal strip is the cutting edge from a cellophane box that's been taken out of the ashes of the wood stove.

I don't think I'm done with the bark collected from the property and I really love how the encaustic medium strengthens it without changing it's texture. This may just be my very first series of work.

Encaustic over Plaster

Plaster all started because of a new book I purchased called "Plaster Studio" by Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise. My husband sent me the link thinking that I would enjoy it and he was right. If you're interested, take a look at this YouTube video.

I still have not discovered a way to get good photos of my encaustic work. There is always a shine spot & no matter how hard I try I can't seem to figure it out. I guess I need some photography lessons.
 

I was hooked as soon as I saw that they were showing techniques in the book using encaustic medium. This is my first piece exploring with plaster. I really love the texture but its damn messy stuff. I haven't been able to bring out fabric in my studio while any plaster is in the works. Oh...if only I had a studio conducive to my eclectic ways....with work stations to fix my artistic appetite.

Encaustic Poppies

I just love dried poppy heads. My favorite are the big fat ones but unfortunately that's not what I had on hand. I wanted to make something with them but I wasn't sure if I could do it in encaustic wax because they're so delicate. The wax actually helped strengthen them. I wouldn't pick at them or anything but they are stronger then when I started.

 I keep all my left over, clean up,  paper towels in the studio because you never know when they'll come in handy. I decided I would audition them on this piece. Cheese cloth was another experiment & I really love the effect.