New Encaustics, amidst the packing

I just returned from my Cabo girl's trip and I have to tell you, if you are stressing out, now is definitely the time for a vacation.  I'm feeling refreshed and ready to move... next Friday... Holy Crap now I'm stressed again. No really, it's all better.

I finally got a good photo shoot in this week. Here are some of the pieces I am boxing because I'll leave them down here in S.D. for the Artwalk show.  I'm working on a few more large pieces that will round out this body of work and then do smaller pieces once I'm up in the beautiful north.  I'm pushing myself to get them done before the packing gets into full swing.

  "This Crazy Beautiful Life"  24 x 24  Encaustic on wood

 "Sweet and Fleeting"  11 x 14  Encaustic on wood

 "Moment in the Sun"  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

"Listen"  8 x 10  Encaustic on wood

"Secret Garden" 11 x 14 Encaustic on wood

"One Summer Day"  8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

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!

Waxy Days of Winter

 It's winter in San Diego so it's something like 60 degrees outside right now. The tree outside my studio door is doing this...

 So awesome. 

So anyway, after a long break from painting (a sick kid and a holiday will do that to you) I'm itching to get back in the studio. Today I busied myself getting Christmas projects in order, prepping wood boards for painting and finishing up this big tropical commission.

Dream Journey  Commission 32 x 64 acrylic on canvas

Also I am putting together a fun "how to" post for artsy Christmas gift lovers, which will be followed by a nice little giveaway.

And while I'm at it, here are a few more photos of recent work:

 Love Blooms 18 x 24 Encaustic on wood

 Budbreak 8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

  closeup: The Old Farm 8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

 Hija 16 x 20 Encaustic on wood 

Lost Garden 11 x 14 Encaustic on panel

Thorny Roses 8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

 Everything's Rosy 10 x 10 Encaustic on panel

New Painting

Reoccurring dreams  18 x 24 Encaustic on deep wood panel

Rainy day

Sent these two pieces off to the Persimmon Gallery today.  I uploaded them in a large format so you could click on them and explore the texture a little.  

 Orchid 8 x 10 encaustic and mixed media on wood

white flowers 8 x 10 encaustic on wood

Today was a rare rainy day in San Diego. While Gertie slept and watched the raindrop patterns on the pool, I relished the cooler temps and mostly just stayed inside and took the opportunity to experiment with mark making, fuse random colors, and do little odd jobs...

 Oil sticks... so smooth to work with

 deep fusing

Isn't this one interesting?

Daniel captured this one of me fusing away, Gertie's such a good studio dog.

I think my next post will be about all my works in progress I have going right now. I have so many ideas they are all bubbling out in different sessions. I should probably try to focus in a bit but it's tough to resist an idea when it sparks up.

New Encaustic

wildflowers 8 x 10 Encaustic

I've been busy doing a series of red-vase-white-flower obsessed still life encaustics lately. This little beaut is headed up to the Persimmon Gallery very soon. I will be posting a few more once I knock out the photo session. Photographing encaustics is a bit difficult. One must wait for the perfect overcast conditions and light to be able to capture them without glare, and even then it takes experimentation to get it right. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

In the meantime, I have had a pretty great month getting back into the studio, getting some commissions started and some summer sales, times are good so I'm thinking of sharing the love a little, stay tuned for a Giveaway I think... more on that later. 

So I saw Florence and the machine last night, and she rocked,  what's more is she inspired... she wore the most amazing full sleeved velvet trimmed maroon backless gown and ran around in black slippers like an exuberant ballerina, all the while nailing runs, vibrato and sustained notes. What an amazing woman. She is so statuesque and interesting looking, I was definitely creatively inspired to paint her!
So if a bunch of art nouveau style red headed figures start popping up in my work you'll know why.

Paintings for Sale

I now accept credit cards and Paypal

 I've made a works for sale gallery on karenminton.com. You can buy them either by contacting me at benskigurl@hotmail.com or you can click the buy button and make your purchase through paypal.

 Another thing that's new here is an email subscribe button. Sign up if you want to get an email letting you know I've posted something new to the blog.

Flathead Valley

Flathead Valley 8 x 10 Encaustic on wood

Now this one is definitely the Flathead Valley. I worked from a photo I took on a recent drive down to visit my friend, artist Kerry Nagel (of which a post is in the works). It's somewhere between Somers and south Kalispell area.  I love the fields down there at the north end of Flathead Lake. It's gorgeous country.

Visiting Anthropologieland Again

Window Shopping     8 x 10     Encaustic on Panel

Sneak Peek

  

Battleground  8 x 8  Encaustic on wood

Broken Tracks  8x8   Encaustic on wood (close up)

 

  Follow Me  8 x 8 Encaustic on wood

These pictures are a little sneak peek into my preparation 

for a show at the beautiful Persimmon Gallery

in Bigfork, MT.  The show will be opening during 

Last Friday Artwalk on October 28th

I want to go to...

Desire, Anthropologieland Series

Encaustic layers with embedded Anthropologie tissue

8 x 10

Confession: I probably browse the Anthropologie website three or four times a week.. ok maybe like, eight times...  I've got it under control, I rarely buy anything, but I'd probably get into deep trouble if I lived near an actual store. Of course I love the expensive stuff the most! This couch figures prominently in my "if I won the lotto and bought a modest apartment in Paris" day dreams...  

Head in the Clouds

Cloud 

8 x 8 

Encaustic

OK I've been really geeking out on clouds lately, did you know there is a Cloud Appreciation Society? How awesome is the internet!

Scraping back to the good stuff

Lets Go Fly a Kite  

8 x 8 

Encaustic and Mixed Media
Sold

This was a particularly dreadful piece I had hanging around. I've been laying the paint on thick, a bit too thick in some cases, but this is a constant learning process, so that's alright. I was thinking how I wanted to rewind, you know, go back to where my vision went off course, so I went back, you can do that with encaustics! Pull off layer after layer. First I let Jolie have her way with it, gouging out deep gaps, which were then filled back in. Then we scraped and scraped and scraped, almost all the way back to the beginning. Then a few lustrous coats of translucence and an ochre wash to bring pieces of lost ideas back into being. Now I love it.

White Roses

White Roses 10 x 22 Encaustic on wood panel

The Chaos of Summer. Part III

The Chaos of Summer III

Encaustic

12 x 16

I don't really know where I'm going with this little series... I think it's just pure creative outlet at this point. Plus I might be starting in on a pretty hefty cloud obsession, amongst other things...

The Chaos of Summer. Part II

The Chaos of Summer II 

9 x 12 

Encaustic

Lily

Lily

8 x 8

Encaustic

The Chaos of Summer...

The Chaos of Summer I

11 x 14

Encaustic

Listening to The Swell Season

Grateful for a cool day in the studio

Mixing paint

What else?

Getting ready to record at Renegade Ridge...

 Need to clean my messy studio...

and weed the garden in preparation for....

the Whitefish Garden Tour

need to go out and trim back the damaged things as well, 

what a crazy hail storm we had yesterday! this is one of the few 

beautiful nasturtium leaves that didn't get ripped to shreds

getting some panels prepared for the inspiration they'll give me when they bloom :)

also,
Can't wait to tour Bonnie's Garden.  She's the brains behind this whole lovely idea.