Here are some more of the little (5″x5″) encaustic paintings I’ve been working on.  I am more, or less, using the small format to experiment with different techniques and to get to know the medium a little better.

Untitled as of yet.  Here you can see where I carved into the wax, for a textural effect. I left the trees smooth.  This was fun to make, mostly because of the colors and, well, because it’s trees.  I’ll have to try something similar on a larger scale.

“Flower Plot” involved a lot of carving and layering over and over.  I like how the carved flowers, which are actually one of the bottom layers, look closer than the flowers with the translucent over-layer (difficult to see in the photo, perhaps).

“Ornamented” - I was going for opal - turned out more like granite, but I like it.  This one did take quite a while with all the carving involved (even though it is small).

  “Nesting Place” - the goal here was to play around with the depth. I wanted the center of the nest-like object to look deeper than the outer layer.  I did this by layering clear over that part and continuing to add more layers of the incised & filled lines.

It’s hard to do the paintings justice in photographs because it’s difficult to show the depth you can achieve by layering the beeswax.  The irony of encaustic is that so many of its wonderful characteristics which make it so fun to work with, are also the very things that make it so challenging.  But, despite the challenges & frustrations, I’m truly loving it.

Creativity Question:  Where does your time go?  How much went to what you wanted to do (creative pursuits)?

As much as I’d like to claim that a lot of my time goes to cleaning (ha!), it’s not true.  I’ve noticed that I spend too much time on my computer - and shamefully, much of that time isn’t what would be considered productive.  So, I’m trying to do better about varying my routine and balancing things out a bit.  My goal is to discipline myself a little bit better so that  I can get more done around here (I mean DONE), and then I’ll have more time to do what I *want*.

I know I’m not usually on top of the holidays - but, hey! I’m here.  Everyone’s here (no school).  I hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day and that we take a moment to remember those who have fought for us so we could maintain our freedom.  Freedom isn’t free - it requires constant vigilance and much responsibility by those who hold it (us!).  I hope we treasure it, are careful with it, and are not so eager to give it away into the hands of those who would mis-use it.   Stepping off soapbox now.

I’ve been experimenting a little with encaustics - just a few more small paintings.  I’ll post those soon.  In the meantime, here’s a little drawing I did for my niece: 

You can download a free pdf copy for printing here.  Yes, I know the proportions are a little off… I’m not worried about it… I just did this while on the phone with family last night, and I just did it for fun.  I thought it would be a fun thing to share - maybe you know a little girl one who might like to color it.  Feel free to print a copy.

That’s all for today.  Hope your weekend is fabulous!

A little creative goodie I wanted to pass along…I was looking for something simple, inexpensive, yet thoughtful and (hopefully) unique to give to the kids’ teachers this year.  All those hardworking teacher’s deserve a little something, don’t they?  The solution: tiny potted succulents, oatmeal pinstriped wrapping paper, ribbon, a bit of wire twisted into a card holder, and little card to top it off.  I think they turned out nicely, and I’m told that they were well received (yay!).

I already had the wire, wrapping paper, card stock and ribbon, so I really only spent about $2.50 for each plant.  Not to shabby, eh?

A couple of notes: I hand made each card with ink and watercolor pencil, but this could easily be done on the computer.  The kids signed their names inside.  If you make yours, be sure to use waterproof ink so the watercolor doesn’t smudge it.  I put a dot of hot glue under the ribbons to keep them on, as they wanted to slip off.   Oh, and make sure the pots are not wet when you wrap them with the paper.  I modified this to my liking from this version (here).

Creativity Question (sort of): Are you kind to yourself?  Do you ever treat yourself to something fun?  Just because?

I don’t always allow myself this, but sometimes, I like to get lost in the fabric store, craft store or home improvement store for a few hours - and just daydream a little bit.  I guess it doesn’t take much for me to classify it as “fun”, haha.  Hmm… maybe I need to work on a “Fun things to treat myself to occasionally” list.