3 New Encaustics

White Roses with Baby's breath
8 x 10
encaustic

Little white roses
8 x 10
Encaustic

White orchids
8 x 10
Encaustic

New Painting, "Three Friends"

Three Friends
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24

New Painting, "Hot Springs"

Hot Springs 16 x 20 Acrylic on Canvas

I'm still working on the foreground I think, but this is what I've been up to lately. It's based loosely on a photo I snapped while on a road trip through Montana. I can't remember where it is exactly, but it reminds me of the hills along Highway 28 that hold so many beautiful memories for me. Over the past decade or so, I have spent many a lovely weekend with girlfriends escaping to the tiny town of Hot Springs to soak my cares/sore muscles/motherhood worries away. The water there is sulfery and soul cleansing.

an old flooded soak house Hot Springs, MT



Update: here is the finished painting



sold

A few new little things...

Well Merry Christmas!
Whew, I've really neglected this blog.

Here are a few pictures of paintings I've been doing.
It's a bit random. OK very random. I've been forcing myself
to go through my big stack of half-finished canvases.
I'm hoping to have these up for your viewing pleasure
(if you live in Whitefish that is) at the Wrap and Roll Cafe
very soon. So maybe it's time to try their new breakfast burritos eh?

the difficult to photograph (because the background is metallic)
Vase of flowers on a red checked tablecloth
11x 14

Flowers in a green vase
10 x 10
(sold)

Snowghost
Sold
(can you see the sleepy face?)

 Mountain study, encaustic
10 x 10
(sold)

Night Voyage
11 x 14
(sold)
the moon and stars glow in the dark
kids dig it




Sitting Nude 8 x 10 Encaustic 
(sold)

Garden Photos and Fair Memories

I haven't done much in the studio today except press a page of dill flowers. But I did take a few photos...

I'm lovin' the new camera... it's not one of these credit card sized point and shoots, it's got some heft. I pick it up and I feel like I really could get that National Geographic job. Best thing about it though, it makes me feel like I'm 11 years old again, snapping black and whites around the farm with my Gradfather's old Minolta. My mom would help me, even drive me around early in the morning, looking for the perfect dawn landscape. I would enter my carefully chosen photos in the Tillamook County Fair. Man I lived for that Fair.

Oh to be young again just for a little while... to feel the elation of the elusive blue ribbon, to be set free (after double checking my Holstein) with my rag tag band of 4H friends in an exciting world of carnies and townies! Set free to be hurled around in those questionable rides, marvel at the race horses, eat sticky caramel apples and be out after dark... Ahhh those were the days.

Of course now I have to go searching for one of my old fair photos but all I can find is this... I think I was a little peeved about that red ribbon ;)

New Encaustics

... and here are a few photos of the encaustics
I just put up at Crush Wine Bar



Vineyard
10 x 10
Encaustic on panel

Dance of the Twinflowers
8 x 10
Encaustic on panel

Columbine in the Garden
10 x 10
Encaustic on panel

Tree Line
8 x 10
Encaustic and pressed Aspen leaves on panel

Aspen Rise
8 x 10
Encaustic and pressed leaves on panel


As you can see I've been really into working with pressed flowers lately. Especially
the columbines and Aspen. These are just small concept pieces so hopefully I will have some
awesome, perhaps more detailed larger pieces done in this style soon

New Decoupaged Pressed Flower Miniatures

These are a few of the new decoupaged pressed
flower pieces I have up at Crush Wine Bar in Whitefish
for the month of August. I didn't have ideal conditions to photograph
these little lovelies, so I will probably re-shoot and re-post sometime after
the show comes down.



Sway
Acrylic and pressed flower on canvas
4x6 inches

Columbine Grace
Acrylic and pressed flower on canvas
4x6 inches
Sold

Columbine Bliss
Acrylic and pressed flower on canvas
4x4 inches

July Bloom
Acrylic and pressed flower on canvas
4x4 inches

Columbine Star
Acrylic and pressed flower on canvas
5x7 inches

Seasons. Four 20 x 20 in paintings

I was visiting my husband at his new office recently and snapped this pic of the 4 abstracts I let him whisk away straight off the easel last month. They are meant to convey only a passing thought or memory of the seasons, like a ghost image on the back of your eyelid view of.. (from left to right) Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter...

A Birthday Banner

Just finished another birthday banner. This one had lots of beautiful vintage buttons on it. I currently have a mini one in my shop if anyone's interested. They are up-cycled from my canvas stretching and painting extras.

Click on the images to see this banner more closely, and to bask in its adorable, yet also rusticly-artsy glory.

Encaustic Hood is in, things are cookin'

A sneak peak at the new encaustic side of the studio. The hood is up and performing its duties admirably, if not a bit frankensteinishly. My fingers are relieved to be done working with sheet metal for a while. The temperatures have all been figured out, the mediums have been mixed, the paint pots are simmering and things, (landscapes dontcha know!) are in the works. Joy!