Lakeside Spirit

I'd almost forgotten the ethereal quality of wax, and the joy of discovery when something unexpected happens.

Like here.

I didn't notice the image of the mysterious lady to start with. I was looking at the painting and wondering how to incorporate the strange shape. I had my stylus poised ready to make trees, then suddenly saw her face. It made me think of Camelot and all things knightly and chivalrous. She had to stay.

The Lakeside Spirit is for sale on Ebay at £4.99.

Take a look here http://thurly.net/0dsa

Ocean View - beeswax aceo

It's early morning, perhaps early evening, and there's a vague pinkish tinge to the sky that casts a romantic glow over the whole landscape. You're sitting on the edge of a cliff surrounded by dense scrubby foliage and listening to the shush of the ocean far below. The surface of the water is ruffled by a gentle breeze. It's a moment of peace, stolen from the busy clamour of everyday life, and just for now you feel that everything is right in your world.

It's been a while since I got the waxes out, but last night the urge to melt and dab overcame me so I gave in to it and this was the result. It's a happy reminder of why I love to paint with wax.

Floral Tangle

This is the result with the hot air gizmo mentioned below. It's okay, but despite its smaller size than a conventional hairdryer it still doesn't have the level of control that I'd like.

Hot Air

I got a new toy yesterday. It's a strange little hairdryer, shaped more like a crafting heat gun than something you'd use for drying your hair. I'm hoping it will work for creating blown effects in wax. I've had some success with an ordinary hairdryer but really there is too much air and not enough heat.

I've also tried using the crafting heat gun but that has too much heat and not enough air. I'll probably end up buying a more specialised heat tool, but for now it's fun to experiment with what I already have.

This is an example of work done with a hairdryer:


I'll post results with the new little gizmo later and compare the two

Two Sales

It's sooo rewarding when someone likes your work enough to want to buy it.

These are the two that recently went to new homes:


Both are from my 'Spiderweb' ACEO series and are my first sales of encaustic art, as mentioned previously.

Someone told me I ought to put pictures of them on here, so here they are.

ACEO upsizing

Still on the subject of the ACEO, and as an example of upsizing to hang on the wall, here's one I recently framed.

The frame itself measures approx. 9.5 x 10.5 inches with the inner mount being around an inch larger than the ACEO in the centre. I gave the image two mats, one white and one pale green, and glued the whole thing into the centre of the back board.

Oh, and the frame cost a couple of quid from a charity shop. It housed a rather grubby looking piece of cross stitch which was quickly and easily removed, but the frame and mount are clean and presentable.

Bargain!

ACEO Fascination

ACEOs are fascinating me at the moment.

For a long time before I started encaustic art dabbling I made greetings cards, and it was this interest that first introduced me to the idea of creating miniature works of art in the form of an ATC (Artists Trading Card). At first I couldn't see the point. Why spend hours fiddling about with something that measures just 2.5 by 3.5 inches and isn't even a card you can send to someone? You couldn't even sell these tiny little cards because the whole point of them was that you made them to swap with other ATC creators.

I just didn't get it.

A while later I came across the expression ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals), and this made a little more sense because at least they could be offered for sale.

Still, such tiny little things. What were people supposed to do with them? And yet the more I delved into the art/craft world, the more I realise they were everywhere.

Fast forward a couple of years, and encaustic art enters my life. Suddenly, the delight that is the ACEO dawns on me:

• Restrictions and boundaries: The size is strict. If it isn't 2.5 by 3.5 inches, it's not an ACEO. This in itself, although it sounds limiting, gives a kind of freedom. By ruling out so many other possibilities the artistic field is narrowed and the focus is tightened.
• Challenge: I can only liken it to writing. It often takes far longer to write a really short story than it does to write a longer one. So too with art. Working on such a tiny area and trying at the same time to make the picture mean something, say something, have some aesthetic appeal is quite a job. With encaustic art, the iron is bigger than the picture so it's easy to obliterate something you wanted to keep.
• Versatility: Store it in a collector's album, hang it on the wall, post it to a friend as a gift, call it a topper and put it on a greeting card - it's small enough to do just about any job you'd want a picture to do.
  
• Affordability: We all have a sense of the value of the 'one-off', the 'original'. To own something that you know is the only one in the world, especially in today's mass-produced world, is special. Original art is beyond the means of most people. Including me. But just about everyone can afford an ACEO.

And quite apart from those practical realisations, they're just so much fun - and maybe that's all the reason that's really needed!