I had a conversation with my friend Dieter today. I told her–no, make that I bared my soul andconfided to a good and dear friend–in other words, one who WOULD NOT JUDGE ME–I confided my weakness for SMARTEES.
I happen to like SMARTEES this time of year. When they start showing up in candy dishes everywhere. Candy dishes in public places–offices, stores, businesses that want to show the Halloween spirit but don’t want to spring for the good stuff so they buy the big bag of cheap candy and it sits there untouched on the receptionist’s desk…until I come in.
I was at work when I ‘fessed up to Dieter. Thought she would understand a Halloween hankering. I don’t recall her exact words but one of them was ‘pathetic’. Did I mention she was is a good and dear friend?
Well Dieter…after work, after the gym…look what I found!
They’ll be in the staff room tomorrow. Some of them. Maybe….
Quick look at what I’m doing right now. Oils, mostly on plaster. Works-in-progress, every one. Early days. This is my favorite:
It’s oil on plaster. Think thin coats of oil paint, colors over colors with lots of scratching. And then there’s the heavy texture of the plaster underneath. But this is just the beginning. As soon as it’s dry enough I’m going to go after it with wax. Layers and layers of hot wax with who knows what in between. I think this one is 12 X 16.
This is also my favorite. It’s a mom thing, got to love ’em all equal. Warning: the photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s also oil on plaster and I’m seeing this with handwriting in the wax-that-has-yet-to-be-applied. Soon. This is 12 X 12
For some reason I’m into rectangles these days.
And scribbles. I love scribbles. This is a little one, 6 X 6. And down below is a lineup of a few more.
Like I said in the beginning, it’s early days for these guys. It’ll be a good week before I wax ’em, the oil base is already tacky but time is my friend here. Meanwhile I’ve got some big cradled panels in the works. Should have lots more to show by the weekend. Maybe even some finished pieces.
Finished pieces are good. Especially with a show in three weeks!
So I went down to the studio this morning. Figured even if yesterday’s experiment was a bust it might be edible.
It was. And it wasn’t. Note to self: Real cream cheese has to be refrigerated. That should’ve been my first clue.
Couldn’t eat it. Nothing else to do but scrape that sucker down. I even took a photo of that, best I could with one hand holding the camera. Turned out okay. I can’t post it though because the quick fingered screwup fairy hit delete when she didn’t mean to. Or maybe she did. Just close your eyes and picture a well manicured dainty hand with skin as soft and smooth as (fill in your cliche here) holding one of those high tech scraper tools. Like a hand model.
Scraping was like slowly unwrapping a luscious present, the kind where you carefully untie the knots, peel the tape away, stick your finger under the flap and-oh-so-slowly lift off the paper while everyone around you is jumping up and down yelling, “OPEN IT ALREADY!!!” And you just sit there humming Carley Simon’s ANTICIPATION. Driving. Them. Crazy.
Go ahead hum a few bars. Right now. Because I put that song in your head and if you don’t get it out of your system it’ll be there ALL DAY. I’ll wait. In fact I’ll go one better. I’ll bring you the concert.
Back already? Good. Because I’ve got an important lesson to share. There I was, slowly and patiently scraping away. Then I started getting excited as landmarks began to emerge. A row of accretions looming just under the surface like an undersea mountain range. Excavations faintly visible under layers of tissue and wax. Each new revelation daring my common sense to keep on going. So I did.
And I went too far.
Then it was back to square 1. Wax. Layer. Scrape. Buff. Gold leaf. A little ground pastel. A little oil paint. More wax. The final piece the same…but different.
I’ve got a show coming up in three weeks. THREE WEEKS! Pause here to breathe into a paper bag, in case you’re getting anxious for me. And you might be if you saw what I did in the studio today.
Because today I gave myself permission to get in there and make a mess. Push the envelope. Practice some of the new stuff I’m learning in Judy’s class. I gave myself permission to make nothing. NOTHING. Just experiment.
I took a 6″X6″ board. Covered it with wax one way. Scraped most of it off. Covered it another way. Scraped most of that off. Scribbled on it with chalk pastel, water crayons, charcoal. Cut up an old art history book and made a transfer of a painting I should know the name of. Covered it all with more wax. Scraped a whole bunch of that off.
At the end of the day I figured I should have something to show for the day–besides the bucket of wax scrapings, that is. So I went back into my comfort zone and threw together something I was happy with.
Except I didn’t like the surface. It was too uneven. Not uneven in a deliberate way (part of it was that). Uneven in a sloppy way.
So I decided to try something I never did before…a wax pour.
I constructed a barrier… (fuzzy photo alert!)
and poured the wax. A bit too much. But it was even, oh yes it was. And thick as cream cheese on a bagel. When I left the studio it was still white. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow but I suspect there’ll be more scraping involved. But if it was cream cheese…ahh, I’d be in heaven.
I had another piece similar to this that I made last week. I decided to do another pour, this time with no barrier. Look at this carefully because I want you to compare it with the final product.
I propped it ever so slightly over a spoon so the hot wax would have a direction to flow. Then I poured. This time I did it right–imagine that!
I added just a touch of gold leaf to highlight the depth of the wax. It’s not the best photo but you can see what I mean. This is what I love about encaustic!
