Alligator Lizards, Accretion, and Piano Keys

“Accretion” is a dry brush encaustic technique that allows the artist to build up wax on a surface.  I’m kind of obsessed with it these days. First, five or so very well-fused layers of medium are put down onto a surface.  Then …

Wax is fickle and so am I, apparently.

A big part of what is appealing to me about encaustic is the “happy accident” factor.   It is extremely hard for me to sketch and plan out a painting and execute it with absolute precision.  I just don’t want …

Chalcedony…

Now that Santa has delivered these little fellas to their new owners and they are safely in Nebraska, thought I would share a little of my process and their progression….  On cradled panel, I put down base layers of blue vintage …

Layers and layers and layers.

I finished a commissioned piece that will be hung in a beautiful new Aspen, CO home, and thought it might be nice for my client to get a little insight into the process of building up an encaustic painting.   …

Making #13

Just in case there is any interest in how these pieces are put together, here is a glimpse.

I start with a watercolor underpainting, which so far consists of large overlapping dots.  I might stray from this as I get farther down this road, but for now, dots it is.  I coat the underpainting (which is glued to a cradled panel) with 4 fused layers of encaustic medium, then began burnishing strips of a failed attempt at encaustic mono-printing into the wax.  

Layers are coated with a protective layer of encaustic medium, and fused.  

When I was satisfied with these layers, I decided to kill some brain cells and do some shellac burning on the surface….

And as a finishing layer, I carved some lines into the surface using an awl and filled them with R&F oil stick.  

The oil stick left on the surface is removed with plain ol’ vegetable oil and hung to dry.  Here are some details of the finished piece.  I’ll post a complete image tomorrow….