New Work.

Haven't posted here in a long time. While I don't plan on posting here regularly, I will likely post once in awhile to go into more depth on whatever I am currently working on in the studio.

Right now I am slowly working towards a show for next spring at the Terryberry Gallery located in the St. Cecilia Music Center. It is a grand old building right in the heart of Grand Rapids. I am very excited to be painting on custom made wood panels that a carpenter friend of mine made by hand. They are a work of art themselves and are so much superior to anything I have used before. This will be my second series done in encaustic paint, which is basically pigmented bee's wax. The last series was the first time working with the medium and I stayed pretty safe.

This time around I am exploring all types of different materials and techniques that can be combined with the wax. So far this has included many different things including coffee, tea, rust solution, silk, rice paper with drawings etc. Although it is not the first piece finished, I wanted to share a diptych I just completed, now hanging in my office at work.

This wood panel was first brushed with a solution of vinegar and steel wool. The solution creates a liquid agent that reacts with the natural tannins in wood to create a dark brown colored panel. I then painted part of the piece with white gesso, leaving the brown color you see at the top and bottom right of the panel. After building up layers of clear wax medium, I then began to add some colored wax, silk with rusted spots, rice paper with rust and graphite and I also put the vinegar solution right on the wax which leaves a rust deposit after evaporating. Finally, the black rectangle is embedded silk with rust solution painted on and allowed to dry. The picture doesn't show it, but it is a dark rust brown color.

It is fairly abstract, but I focused a lot on eye travel, complementary colors (warm colors over cool colors etc.) as well as keeping lots of open space so that visually it pulls the viewer into certain spots. the black square is also a really bold statement, I tried to use black and white to create emotion. The clear wax gives the painting depth and I always hope to create work where the viewer can find new details every time they look at it.

More on the series as I continue to work on it and think through it.

Untitled

31x62

Wax, silk, rust, rice paper, graphite and oil on wood panel