Getting ready for the Mission Federal ARTwalk!

The last month has been a blur. We moved back in to our house in MT, and settled in. I set up my studio first thing, and went right to work. In order to save money and spare Jolie a bumpy transition, we opted not to put her into day care, and instead Daniel stepped up to fulfill the parent duties while I worked nights to finish as much work as possible to showcase at the Mission Federal Artwalk in San Diego this month.  It's not a schedule we want to keep up, but I must say I do love working under a deadline like this. It was so satisfying to be able to really focus and get so much done.  Here are a few sneek peeks.

Rusted Sky  8 x 8 Encaustic on wood

Windswept  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

I needed to keep the work small since I'm shipping these...

 Across the Valley 4 x 6 encaustic on wood

 Orchid  5x5 Encaustic on wood

 Mountain Flowers  5x5  Encaustic on wood

Bouquet  5x5  Encaustic on wood

Mounted Prints.

 This is kindof a new thing that I experimented with and the results

are beautiful, though hard to get good photos of because there are a few layers

of translucent wax over the top of these.

Big Sky I  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print, mounted on wood panel

 

Big Sky II  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print on wood panel 

 Big Sky III  5 x 7 Encaustic Mono-print on wood panel

 Loosened Ties  5 x 7 Encaustics (pair) on panel

Festival Girls 8 x 10 Encaustic on panel

Blooms 8 x 10 Encaustic on panel

The next post will likely be a report of the show and photos of my booth. Until then visualize me selling tons of paintings under sunny skies! 

~ Karen

Encaustic Mono Prints

Just before Christmas, I got addicted starting learning how to do a mono printing process with encaustics. Here is a peek at the latest prints. I am doing as many as possible in preparation for Artwalk.   The reason I started looking into doing these, was because I wanted to offer an affordable print alternative to prospective buyers. Encaustics are expensive, and a large investment for most folks, and I've noticed that many artists offer limited edition prints, but... if I think about it,  I would personally much rather have an original piece than a digital print if possible, so I started experimenting with this process as a way to do that. I have been using all sorts of handmade papers to try and hit on the one I like the best but it's tricky, and so far the best is a japanese rice paper traditionally used for painting with ink.  Here's a step by step photo guide of what the mono print process involves:

 

 An anodized aluminum plate is placed on the heated palette and the

painting is done straight onto the plate.

 

 A sheet of paper is cut to size and carefully placed over the heated wax paints

and the paint is pressed into the paper.

 Voila! Beautiful, frameable, encaustic paintings on paper!