Peewit

This painting is taken from a sketch of lapwings in one of my old sketchbooks. They were done in preparation for a landscape painting. Making this painting was similar to making a intaglio printing plate; I etched the design into the wax and 'inked up' with oil paints, wiping away the surplus and adding wax as I went along. To my eye it looks more like a gull, but Sara saw it and spotted it was a lapwing without being told, so that's good enough for me.
I've included the original sketches below.

Introductions

Yesterday I met the ebullient Laura Shipley after she knocked on my studio window and introduced herself. She had spotted my brushes in the window and couldn't resist making herself known. I'm glad she did. Laura is an artist who I have been aware of for some time, after exhibiting with her in Easingwold. She had a look in my studio and we had an interesting chat, which included a few ideas where I might get some materials locally, and an encaustic artist that I wasn't aware of in York.

This is the second time this has happened; I met Thomas Rimmington, a portrait artist, in exactly the same way a few months ago. 

I'm hoping for David Hockney next.

The Ley of the Land.

The Touble With Wax

Painting with encaustic is very different to oil painting. I think I've probably already said that in a previous post somewhere. Whilst it offers great transparency, opacity and luminosity, depending on how much you apply and how much pigment you add to the wax, I'm finding that it offers virtually no control over nuances of marks. With oil paint you can load your brush with as much or as little paint as you like, and,with a little practice, change how each stroke of paint looks - even in mid-stroke. a twist of the brush, changing the pressure or a scrubbing motion will all affect how the paint looks. There is very little of this in encaustic painting by comparison. The wax starts to cools as soon as you lift the brush from the wax pot. It cools (and hardens) instantly on touching the painting surface. You then fuse it with a blow torch or heat gun, which can change how it looks, much it is not the same as working back into wet oil paint. Largely, once you lay down your wax, that is the mark you have until you work on top of it with something (more wax or oil paint). You don't work into it, like you can with wet oil paint. This makes it tricky. That said, it is good fun, and it does force you to work with the marks that you have more than you necessarily do with oils. I enjoy looking at the wax as it's building up and seeing what it suggests to me. It's a bit like painting with Rorschach ink spots.

Untitled

Millfield

This is an encaustic painting of the houses that back onto the wildlife area and Millfield park in Easingwold. The wildlife area includes a couple of acres of marshy ground, with no footpaths into it, and a few acres of fairly young deciduous woods, with lots of paths. Hector loves these woods, and is always desperate to get into the marshy bit. We haven't seen any of the snipe that are supposed to live here, but we have had some great views of a hunting sparrowhawk and a hunting barn owl. We have also watched a buzzard glide over. I'll be interested to watch this area as the seasons turn. 

Millfield

Hot wax on salvaged plywood.

Old Farm

Painted several weeks ago, over the Christmas holiday. Although representational, this is an imagined scene. 

When I'm painting with encaustic I find that I think differently to how I think when painting in oils. Not more, just differently. With wax I start with very little preconceived ideas about what it is going to look like, looking instead at what the wax suggests to me. I constantly turn the piece upside-down and on it's side, and often continue from there, depending on what may be suggested. This is interesting, but at times it feels a bit limited. My thoughts are questioning what will happen if I put some wax down here or there; how will it affect the shapes that I see. Whilst not permanent, the wax is far more difficult to remove or paint over without affecting everything else, especially if it's been fused. When painting in oil, especially representationally, I give more thought to the direction it's taking, and the design before I even start. Neither involves less thought than the other process, it's just different. What I find particularly pleasing is when the two techniques influence each other.

Old Farm