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.

Rocks & Rain

In 2014 my husband & I went on a trip to Ireland with friends. This was the first time we had ever been to Ireland as well as it being the first time we've ever taken holidays with friends. What a fantastic trip we had. Ireland is the place to go for "R & R"...rocks and rain. I've never seen so many rocks in all my life. Newfoundland doesn't even come close. I've also never seen so much rain. It rained every day. It didn't bother us at all, we just kept going & it just added to the wonderful ambience of the landscape.

Along our travels I would do my normal collecting of anything I thought was interesting. This is better than any shop if you ask me. Beautiful, free and just sitting there offering up it's glory. The feather was actually collected on the first day we arrived. Guinness...what a fantastic facility inside Dublin. The feather was along side the road sitting in water with dirt & gravel stuck to it. Well...I just love that sort of thing.

 

The dried thistle was collected on the Aran Islands. Miles & miles of rock made into pens for grazing livestock & farmland. It was so windy that sometimes I just had to sit down to wait for the gust to pass so I could gain my footing. The dried thistle was so perfect in this landscape and I had Chris cut of one of the heads & I carried it in my hand until we got back to the bed and breakfast that evening. It was so delicate I was afraid that it would crush if I put it in my bag.
Chris saw the rust piece & instantly I just had to have it.

Rocks & Rain is rough and a perfect fitting for my Irish piece. Everything except the rust has been encased in encaustic wax. It was the first time I had been in the studio in about seven weeks. I was completely in a zone & afraid to leave even to eat for fear that the moment would end.

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.

On my table

This is a very busy time of year. Spring is here and there is much to do. Gardening has been on my mind which leaves me even less time in the studio. I haven't posted for a couple of weeks taking advantage of the nice weather for yard cleanup. 
After work I've been working slowly on another background for more of nature's offerings.

This time I was inspired by a book I was re-reading called "Bags with Paper and Stitch".  I started with canvas and I glued newsprint to it. Then I distressed the fabric and tore the newsprint away in sections that weren't glued. Then I applied plaster and paint.
 

There is still much to do but working slowly lets it progress over time and allows my mind to play with different ideas.
I'll have lots of time to ponder & collect more of nature's offerings in Ireland over the next couple of weeks.

Natures Offering

Natures Offering was inspired by an artist that I've been following, Bridgette Guerzon Mills. I'm drawn to encaustic painting because of its natural elements. It's the reason why I wanted to become a bee keeper...little did I know that the wax is the smallest portion of a bee harvest.

It took quite a while to complete because as usual my pieces develop over time. I almost never start out with a vision of a completed piece.

I started with canvas that I distressed using a razor blade & needle nose pliers. At first I was very delicate but as my confidence built I had a heaver hand with the razor. Then I added plasterwrap that is used in sculpting. The pieces were a little flimsy so I backed the canvas with more plaster. I added some oil painted accents along with some encaustic gesso & then I covered everything with encaustic wax.

I love anything rustic and raw looking. A couple of weeks ago my daughter came home for the weekend and we spent some time in the woods. She was able to 'shuck' the bark off of a dead tree and it worked perfectly for my hanger. The bark is very strange and spongy and I've been eying it for quite some time. I was so excited to have it and that weekend happened to be quite windy. I had quite a hard time getting my bark to the car without it blowing away in bits.

Special thanks to Jesika for shucking the bark and to Keith Stewart for saving me the hornets nest. I know he thinks I'm crazy but he's a fantastic enabler.

Teenage Head

I had fun making this piece a couple of weeks ago. I was a little nervous about it so I just left it in the studio for a bit. After a weekend barbeque, I've been encouraged to post it on my blog. I've been collecting computer parts for months because I just love the colours and the shine. I know very little about computers but it's been fun developing ideas. My family  has been helping me collect pieces and I really loved this one that my son brought home. I put it on top of the pile because I just knew I had to use it in something. My husband brought home the copper wire that was like a ball of hair actually, it was so fine. The copper mesh was from my father. It's actually slug netting and he uses it in some of his floral designs. Too beautiful for slugs if you ask us. Then I added the Moosehead bottle cap and dissected cell phone parts...from a moment of teenage rage.

I started with a board that I painted with a copper oil stick. Then I coated the board with encaustic wax.  I then layered a painted and distressed dryer sheet on top of the board and built the design with the bits I had around my studio.