Domesticated - Painted Plaster & Encaustic Art

I raised to respect and love the domestic arts - and I do with all my heart.

 My latest art piece, "Domesticated"  is an ode to one of my favorite hobbies - baking! 

Using my new favorite methods.. Layers of plaster on a wood plaque.. Shallow carved using Urban Threads embroidery designs.  Truly, there are soo many ways use to embroidery patterns beyond it's intended use. A fabric and lace apron dusted in chalk, stamped, and covered in beeswax...

A few more layers of paint - reminiscent of those fun, flour messes that build in our home after a day of baking cookies.

Encaustic Jellyfish Art

The Sinking Jellyfish, my latest encaustic collage piece. I adore jellyfish, I would love to have a huge tank of them in our bedroom. They have this amazing calming effect on me, I love to watch their underwater ballet.

Hippity Hop - Chocolate Bunny Mixed Media Art

I started this piece a couple weeks ago. I had some spare time and just was playing. When I first started with  fine art mediums, back in high school, my favorite was oil pastels. I still have a large supply of them and thought it would be fun to try them again. The first layer reminds me of jelly beans - bright, yummy rainbow of colors. From there I built up several layers of texture and finished with my favorite Easter candy - a large, chocolate rabbit. Just makes me want to bite the ears off! Hippity Hop  is a much sweeter piece than I've been doing lately and every time I see it, I want a handful of candy.

Wax On, Wax Off

I can't help it! I have fallen in love with melted beeswax and plaster!! This past weekend I had an extraordinary amount of time in the studio and just played the days away.

First off is "The Gilded Memory". I know, I know.. put a bird on it.. But I can't help loving the imagery and the meaning behind bird cages. This started as an ordinary heart paper mache box. While I was playing with plaster earlier, I had a bit of excess and decided to shmear it all over the lid. It gave me awesome depth and such a fun background to work with. There is cream and pink paint along with a gold glittery wash. I spritzed some Glimmer Mist. There is an original postcard from 1910, lace and book pages in French. Lots of yummy, hot wax to finish it off.

Next up is a piece in my Dark Carnivale series. I'm actually still working on I - Double Trouble, and it will be a bit before that is completed since it a quite large fabric collage. This one is II - The Magic Eye.

This one started on a 12" square mounted canvas. I originally layered joint compound and strips of plaster. Then it was iced in a thick layer of white gesso. I had fun painting the background with acrylics, fluid watercolor, and oil pastels. I wasn't sure where I was going with it at first and then it seemed perfect. This image was one that I sketched a few months ago when I decided to create the series. After the first layer of paint, I collaged fabric on top for the eye, banner, and circle. I then came back with more paint and darkened it up. All topped with of course.. hot beeswax. I wish this picture did it some justice. The layers of plaster and paint give it an incredible depth and texture.

Next up for the Dark Carnivale? A lizardish man on a high wheel bicycle. I'm not sure which medium I'll use to create it yet..

The Stitches That Bind

Oh my, this was just too much fun to make! I have been itching to do another encaustic / textile mixed media piece. My girls both had the flu this past week and there has been little time to sleep nor play. As soon as fevers subsided and laundry cleaned, I ran to the studio for some art therapy!

This was done on a mounted canvas. I pulled out one of my easels and acrylic paints with glee. I then layered it with the quilting cotton fabric (they are from Blend, Charlotte Lyons line - Walnut Hill Farm) I embroidered on linen the following quote - "Reinforce the stitch that ties us, and I will do the same for you". They were embedded into the canvas with warm, hot beeswax.

I wanted something more.. Something organic. I wanted to have some free motion sketching on the canvas, but I did not want to cover up more of the paint with chunks of fabric. I had an idea!

I knew that you could create free standing lace by stitching soluble stabilizer and tulle. I wondered if I could do that with just free motion sketching and if the hot buttery wax could melt the stabilizer. And it did! Looking back I could have washed off the stabilizer, dried it and then embedded... Oh well, maybe I will try that next week.

This was such a fun treat to make after a week of some ickiness.
I think it is the perfect Valentine art and just placed it on Etsy.. 

Poisoned Apple - Completed Piece

I loved this process so much.. I can't wait to get started on another!

Poisoned Apple 

Poisoned Apple - WIP

It's no surprise that my girls are huge Disney nuts.. Considering how much my Mum and I love the movies and the park, it was their destiny to be little princesses. And as much as I love Disney, sometimes when Tangled or Snow White seems to play endlessly in our home.. I tend to well, think darker thoughts..

I've wanted to do a poisoned apple clutch for awhile now and finally had some time this weekend to play. There are so many types of pigment on this Kona white cotton. I used my Inktense pencils, silk dye, dye-na-flow, lumiere paint, and good 'ol fabric paint. This picture is before I went free motion crazy on it.

I just couldn't bear to cut it up into a single purse. I wanted to keep it for myself, a number of friends have love for it and I wanted to offer it in the shop. What to do?

I decided to take a number of high resolution pictures of the fabric and I'm going to reprint them at Spoonflower. I have NO idea how I will like the end result..but experimenting can be fun.

As for the original? I've also been wanting to mix fabric art with encaustic techniques.. So that is what I will be working on tonight..