More About Floater Frames

Last week I wrote about floater frames for cradled boards, specifically for encaustic paintings.  I continued to look around the web for resources and have ordered another frame from Frame USA.  This frame is similar to the ones I ordered from Dick Blick are about $5 less expensive.  I ordered a frame in clear maple and 12" x 12".  This is not a standard size so they don't have them in stock but build them as ordered.  I"ll let you know how they look.

Elisa Sparks was generous sending me photographs of frames she recently learned.

Frame on left = Artwork pictured from the back on right

Example by Elisa Sparks

The frame is made from inside corner molding which you may be able find at your lumber stores.  This molding comes in many sizes and is called by several names.  Basically you are looking for wood that has been milled to have part of the mass removed to make a "shelf" on which your panel will sit. The frame is made slightly larger than the outside dimension of the art so there is a space between the art and the inside of the frame. I have not been able to local this style molding in a store as yet but will keep looking.

You may notice the small blocks placed in the corners on the back side of the art pictured above.  These blocks serve two functions.  They lift the panel off the back frame and they provide a place to insert a screw to attach the panel to the frame.  On a cradled board you don't need these as the boarder of the panel is thick enough to serve as a foundation for the screw.

When you do purchase or make frames of this type you will need to consider whether you worked on a flat panel or cradled board and the depth of the board.  You will need to decide how much float space you want around the edge of the art and in some cases how you prefer to attach the panel to the frame.  The Dick Blick frames come with holes pre-drilled but these holes are very close to the edge and could cause splintering of the edge of your panel.  I intend to purchase some off-set clips for the next ones I mount.  Here is what those look like.  You should be able to purchase them at a big-box store.

Off-set frame clips

Encaustic Print and Frame by Elisa Sparks

There are lots of video's on making frames on Youtube but I didn't find one that exactly fits what I'm trying to share with you but you might get the idea from viewing some of the ones posted.  May of the video's show frames for stretched canvas which doesn't always apply to how a cradled board is framed.

Another source that was suggested was Florida Frames.  They have a very nice selection of styles of floater frames and their style 1006 showed the shape of the corner molding I was suggesting you might want to use in making a frame.  I did not follow through with pricing the frames at this site as you have to submit an order to get the price but I'm sure the order is not "made" until after you have the pricing information.

Another source for beautiful frames is Metropolitan Frames.  Their frames are fabulous but more than I wanted to spend at this time but still worth looking into.

Thanks to Elisa Sparks for sharing these photos.

Painting With Encaustic: Tips and Insights

Pods - Terry Jarrard_Dimond

Encaustic Painting - 12" x 12" - 2016

In my last post: Encaustic Worksop at Cullowhee Mountain Arts,  I talked about my recent workshop with Lisa Pressman in a general way.  This week I want to share some tips and insights I have had since returning along with information Lisa shared that finally sunk in with me.  

Smoke Ring

 - Terry Jarrard_Dimond

Encaustic Painting - 12" x 12" - 2016

• All mediums are not the same.  I have used several brands of encaustic medium and I have also made my own.  I have spent lots of time trying to get a shine on the surface of my work and it never seemed to look good.  During the workshop we used R&F Medium and the work looked hard and shiny as soon as it dried.  It could then be buffed up every more. I am totally sold on this product.

• I have lots of the "old" medium which I can not afford to waste so I will use it as one layer of the prime for my boards but I will no longer mix it with my encaustic paint.

• Lisa uses a safety razor blade held between forefinger and thumb to scrape rather than loop tools.  The razor blade worked much better for me as well.  Much more control....however, I have arthritis in my right thumb and it becomes painful after a while.  When I returned home I found a holder for this type razor blade used for scraping windows and tried scraping with the blade in the holder.  Not a much finest as just holding the blade but a mix of the two approaches will be good.

Window scraper 

• When priming your board always warm the board first.  I had forgotten that.

• When using the heat gun always put it on low or you will move the wax around in ways you won't like.

• Air bubbles can be popped when using a propane torch by flicking the bubble with the tip of the flame.  Don't over heat.

• Encaustic paint can be mixed with lots of medium and remain beautiful.  Don't use the paint straight from the block.  

• You can fit more paint containers on your hot palette if you use rectangular paint containers.  I began with round containers but I just got some of R&F's paint pans. I can fit about 10 pans on my small hot palette.

Strings Attached - Terry Jarrard_Dimond

Encaustic Painting - 12" x 12" - 2016

• Establish two palettes.  One for opaque colors and one for transparent colors.  I have previously not been very careful about that but I like this idea and I am loving what transparent paint adds.

• Using soy wax to clean your brushes and tools may leave a residue which can cloud your paint.  Rather than cleaning your brushes all the time try having brushes that you use with only one color.  If you do use soy wax to clean your brushes be sure and wash then with soap and water afterwards.

• I replaced the wooden clothes pins which help remove my paint containers around on the hot palette with tiny metal clips I bought on Ebay.  These work a lot better.

• Don't pick your paint containers up with the clips as they aren't that tight.  To pick things up off the palette I use a pair of pliers.

When the Dust Settles - Terry Jarrard_Dimond

Encaustic Painting - 12" x 12" - 2016

• If you like to work in a square format (I do) it gives you the opportunity to combine several paintings to make one larger one.

• Don't melt an entire block of paint into one container.  Break the paint up with a hammer and melt the chips as needed extending them with medium.

• Float frames work great with cradled boards.  They can however be very expensive.  I've just ordered one frame from Dick Blick that isn't expensive.  I'll let you know how it looks when it arrives.

• For safety I plug everything into one multi plug outlet along with a night light.  When the night light is off I know everything else is off.  This includes 3 electric hot plates and a vent-a-fume.  So far I've had no issue with power outages but you will want to be careful.

• When my palettes and paint cool down I cover everything with a drop cloth to avoid dust or other debris from getting into or onto my paint and equipment.

Enjoy your studio time!

SaveSave

Encaustic Workshop At Cullowhee Mountain Arts

Supplies generously donated by R&F Encaustic for the workshop.

Yesterday I returned home from a week of study at Cullowhee Mountain Arts at Western Carolina University with Lisa Pressman.  The class was an advanced encaustic painting class.  It was informative, fun, and very satisfying.  

I have had a desire to make progress in this medium for a couple of years and I finally have enough information to begin the process in ernest.  I highly recommend Lisa as a teacher and as a person.  She is willing to spend personal time with you answering questions and concerns and also willing to give honest and thoughtful feedback on what you are doing and how to improve your work both technically and aesthetically.  

Class exercise

This is an example of a class exercise which involved drawing directly on an unwaxed cradled board, adding  medium and then white paint.  The piece was taken further after these processes. During the class I began perhaps 10 boards and will be evaluating them to see what they need over the next weeks.

Lisa Pressman

On the last morning of class we presented the work for everyone to view.  Everyone was invited to see the best work from each class member.  There were many supportive comments from the class and guidance from Lisa.

My best to everyone in the class and many thanks to Lisa for another great class!

New Encaustic Painting and Taxes

Untitled - Terry Jarrard-Dimond

Encaustic Painting - 8" x 8"

Last week I took time to continue my work with encaustics.  This process is very unique and challenging and very engaging.  I have chosen to work small and with a limited palette as I begin to understand how to work with the materials to get the results I want.  The edges of the above image is cropped only because this is a very casual shot of the piece and it was photographed on a white wall so part of the work blended with the wall.  The edges are much softer at this point.

Most of this week will be taken by preparing my tax information.  Record keeping isn't my strong suit so this is always a trauma.  I took one of those online "test" recently to see if I am right brained or left brained.  My results said I used the two sides of my brain equally.  Interesting.  I know I certainly don't utilize the part dealing with numbers very well.  You don't want me to keep your inventory records or balance your check book.  Thank goodness for computer programs.

Have a good week friends and I'll see you on the other side of my tax week from hell.

Thanks for stopping by

Studio 24-7 

or

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Lynette Haggard -Intimate Explorations

This is an update of an interview.  Lynette is doing some exciting new work and hope you will check out her website:

Rhythmo No. 8, 2010

Encaustic on Panel, 24" x 44" x 1.5"

Until a couple of years ago I was not aware of anyone working with the encaustic process. During my undergraduate years my school did host an artist from the Boston area who worked with encaustic but that was my only direct exposure to this beautiful medium. The work of this artist was done on a large scale and figurative. Artists today are expressing themselves in wax with many points of view and many different techniques and it has been an exciting adventure to find these artists on the web.

Today I have an interview that I found rather special and I hope you will as well. My featured artist is Lynette Haggard and she works with Encaustic. Her work is beautiful and mysterious and demonstrates that she isn't afraid to experiment. Those are qualities I always admire in creative people and their work.

Rhythmo No. 3, 2010

Encaustic on Panel, 16" x 48" x 1.5"

Lynette Haggard

Artist Statement

My work references imperfections, history of marks, memory, music and the contrast between organic and the structured. My process includes the use of encaustic, oil, found materials, paper, paint and marks. What interests me is the play between the unpredictable and the structured, tactile yet intangible, resulting in surface and imagery that is evocative to the viewer.

The process is both additive and subtractive. In between layers, I fuse with a torch, heat gun or hot tool. Sometimes I score and mark the surface to reveal the colors, marks and history beneath.

Using multiple approaches, I am able to create a history while working within the formal constraints of the edges of the panel or the object I am creating. The pieces incorporate juxtaposition and various associations between the areas of activity on the surface. A color, an edge, a mark, a drip, a stroke, or an added material will define the tactile activity within the space and surface. The results are intimate explorations, associations and a history through layering.

Blossom, 2010

Encaustic an oil stick on found object, 13" x 6" x 5"

Interview Questions and Answers

The first three questions are questions I am asking in all interviews this year.

Terry: At what point in your life did you know at your core that you were an artist?

Lynette: I have always been interested in making things and drawing and painting. The process of making art became integral to my life at an early age. My dad was imaginative and encouraged me. He also helped me build small electrical circuit boards, taught me to solder wires and build tree houses. His business was selling X-Ray equipment and designing the installation of X-Ray equipment, working with architects. Sometimes I visited his warehouse where I played with electrical meters and other weird electrical things. We did a lot of drawing and discussing inventions we could make. A favorite game was "improvise!" where if we could solve a problem in alternative ways, we would. My mom also encouraged me to sew. So I was always drawing and cutting out shapes and assembling things - surrounded by fabric, scrap cardboard, wire, clay, reams of computer paper from my grandmother. I enjoyed many summers on a farm in Vermont where I worked the farm, got my hands dirty and especially enjoyed the company of an 85-year-old woman who cut out quilt fabric by hand during the summer. She spent all winter hunkered down sewing her quilts by hand.

Making art was my haven, my escape, place to explore, and something I did well. My family life was often in turmoil, but when I closed the door to my room and wrote or drew, I went "inside" and left the rest of the world behind me. I was especially influenced by my life-long friend, Birgit DeGennaro, a Swedish American transplant who took me under her wing when I was young. We maintained a friendship for over 50 years. The best way to describe our relationship is that it was well, like Quantum Aesthetics. She taught me appreciation for things in life and art that made me introspective, inquisitive, and strong. Recently she passed away, but I will always hold her teachings in my persona and spirit, and how I express myself or develop my work.

Throughout high school I was active in visual arts programs, filling up all my extra school time in the art classroom. Eventually I studied at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) where I obtained a Bachelor's of Fine Arts with a major in Painting and a minor in sculpture.

Terry: Do you ever get into an artistic slump and if so, how do you rejuvenate yourself?

Lynette: Sometimes I have to manage how I transition jumping from a "day job" to my studio "job". I find that a "slump" usually means that I have lost focus of the concept or body of work I'm dealing with. Sometimes I may turn the work away to the wall, but in the past year Or so I find that I am having new ideas and directions before I complete the current series. So I have learned that it is very helpful for me to step away from what I'm doing and to write or draw my ideas for the next work. I have begun sketching while I am on the commuter train, taking notes and making records of my ideas. This helps me get a quicker start when I get to the studio.

Artefacto #8, 2006

Encaustic on Cut Wood, 15" x 9" x1.5"

Terry: Please describe your studio activity...your work habit.

Lynette: On my "studio days", I usually begin the day with a good hour-long walk with my 2 dogs and some of my friends who have dogs. After that I head to the studio, I turn on the hot plattes and wait for the paint to be ready. Simultaneously, I either clean up and prep my workspace or review my sketchbook and notes. This is a good time to look at the work I have been making and note any changes I want to make. Then I start working and I may take some breaks to either write or sketch or take a walk.

I work a full-time job in Boston where I design science-based educational materials. I spend a few evenings a week in my studio, plus weekends, holidays and vacation days. Because encaustic can be a very time consuming process, I try to be organized about when I make medium, prep panels and do other planning for my work.

Haggard's Studio

Lynette Haggard working in her studio.

Terry: While encaustic is your primary medium, do you work regularly in any other medium? What is the quality of the encaustic medium or process that engages you most and how do those elements support your work?

Lynette: For several years I was an oil painter working in more of a representational realm. In 2002 I visited Cuba and not long after that, my work began to shift. Abstraction, texture, history of the mark, memories of what had been and impact of music began to interest me. With this shift, the texture, luminosity and color of encaustic began to appeal to me. The medium fit my concepts.

Almost Touching, 2007

Encaustic on panel, 5" x 31" x 1.5"

Referring to the image Artefacto #8, and Almost Touching - these pieces were inspired by the history of the broken and worn down building and walls in Havana, Cuba. Over the past 6 months I have begun to add more dimensionality in my work, and more. I have just begun working with plaster as a ground and also will be doing some wall pieces that are more object-like than painting.

Camber, 2010

Encaustic, Wood - 14" x 9" x 2"

Terry: What impact if any has being active on the World Wide Web had on your, your art or your art activities?

Lynette: I love the Internet. It provides many opportunities for me to connect with so many other artists. In January this year I began a blog and decided to interview other artists for a while. This practice has proven to be enormously rewarding. While it is work, and takes up a chunk of time each week, I get back so much from this activity that I plan to continue it for a while. I am able to look at all kinds of work and learn how each artist's process, thoughts and goals are different. Of course, now that I have procrastinated doing this interview for so long, I have more empathy for my future interviewees!

The Web is also a great way to do research, market yourself, and communicate. I don't know how we lived without it...

Lynette with some of her work.

Biographical Information

Lynette grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts and received her BFA from Philadelphia College of Art. Since 1995 she has been exhibiting regionally and nationally and is included in collections in both the US and Abroad. She teaches classes from her studio and has been a guest artist at various art organizations as well as the Annual Encaustic Conference.

Contact Information:

Website: http://www.lynettehaggard.com/

Blog: http://www.lynettehaggard.blogspot.com

Email: lynette@lynettehaggard.com

Thank you Lynette for sharing your work with us and your story. Thanks also to YOU the Reader! I appreciate your stopping by Studio 24-7 and I love hearing from you.

Remember: Commenting is FREE!

Box Number 2 - added 06-18-2012

Jane Nodine - Fire and Wax

Jane Nodine

Trace.105

encaustic wax, iron oxide on panel

This week I finally made it up to Greenville SC to visit the McDunn Gallery which is currently showing the encaustic paintings of Jane Allen Nodine. The show is titled Fire and Wax.

The show opened a couple of weeks ago but the good news it that it has been extended so you still have time to drop by and see this exciting new work. Here is a link to the gallery for hours, location and dates:

http://www.mcdunnstudio.com/index.htm

Jane Nodine

Venetian Lace .02

encaustic wax, oil pigment, resin, iron oxidation on panel

Jane is well known in South Carolina as well as the southeast and she is now making her name known on the national scene with her encaustic paintings. The work is rich and has the look of exotic stone. There are flashes of rust, gold and deep browns and many of the works have interesting pitted surfaces. These surfaces are played against the soft sheen of the buffed wax. Jane's elegant sense of composition is pulls all the parts together making a very cohesive collection.

Jane Nodine

Trace.104

encaustic wax, ink, iron oxidation, resin on panel

Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7. I love hearing from you so remember...

Commenting is FREE!!

Nancy Natale - Remembering

All Relative

Encaustic and Mixed Media on Panel

24" x 24" x 1.5" - 2010

The World Wide Web is a wonderful place, especially when you discover talented and generous artists willing to share their art and information about their studio and medium. I do not recall just now how I came across the artwork of Nancy Natale but she fits right into the description I just gave. We have been communicating for close to year and I am delighted to present her work to you today.

All Relative - detail

Nancy Natale

My road to making art had a lot of curves and turns through a life that I thought had to be spent working in an office. I didn't begin painting until my mid 30s and then enrolled in art school at 40. At Massachusetts College of Art I majored in painting but spent a lot of time resist-dyeing textiles and looking at sculpture.

Until I met encaustic, I had a history of switching around in different mediums: oil painting, unique artist's books, collaged and painted ricepaper quilts, constructed paintings and in various odd materials and glass mosaic. Since I began working with encaustic about six years ago, I have pretty much been hooked on it - with occasional forays into oil painting. However, my encaustic paintings have been developing increasingly sculptural elements so that I now refer to my work as 2 1/2 D - living somewhere between the flatness of painting and the volume of sculpture - but still clinging to the wall.

My mother's recent illness and increasing memory loss due to her advanced age have had a major impact on my work. I have become more aware of aging and mortality and my work has become darker and more about time's passage. I am also beginning to include books as sculptural components in my work and think they will become an important addition. I feel that I am at a good stage in my work after many years of experimentation, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Current show: 5th Annual Encaustic Invitational, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ , March 6-27, 2010.

Boys of Liberty

Deconstructed Book with Encaustic, pigment stick, rubber and tacks.

12" x 16" - 2010

Interview

Terry: At what point in your life did you know at your core that you are an artist?

Nancy: It took me a long time and a big life change to come to that realization. I was in my mid-30s and just began painting, gradually beginning to study and learn what I wanted to know about it. Within four years I had decided to completely revamp my life and go to art school

Terry: Do you ever get into an artistic slump and if so, how do you rejuvenate yourself?

Nancy: Usually I switch mediums. That gives me enough of a jump start to send me spinning into something new. I love the learning curve of a new medium and it gets my artistic juices flowing.

Terry: Please describe your studio activity....your work habit.

Nancy: I have always been someone who works in spirts under pressure of deadlines, but with the economic slowdown, there haven't been as many deadlines and that's actually been good for me. I've had many more ideas and have begun using a notebook in a more systematic way to record ideas for future works. I try to work in series because that's the best way to show and sell, and it actually does help to work out ideas from one piece to the next. The best way for me to stick to a series is to note down a series of ideas from the beginning and carry those out in the flesh. If I don't do that. I make too many changes as I go along and bump out of series mode.

Usually when I hit the studio, I just start working - either picking up where I left off on a piece or beginning to prepare a new work. I find myself making more sculptural constructions these days, so there's a lot of building up a piece that goes on before painting begins. I had been making my own wooden panels, but that was just too much work, and I felt like it was holding me back. Now I have invested in a large selection of various-sized panels and can envision my plans for a series in a very deliberate way, knowing that I can have all the pieces matched in size without my experiments in carpentry holding me back.

Dancing in Mourning

Deconstructed Book with Encaustic, pigment stick, rubber and tacks.

12" x 16" - 2010

Terry: How do you know when a work is finished and what makes a given piece 'special'?

Nancy: Ugh, that's a tough one to put into words. I guess the piece has to resonate with me and just feel right. I usually have to look at it over a period of time and get used to it before I can really evaluate it. I try to sneak up on it when I first come to the studio and get a fresh look. That usually tells me whether it feels right or something strikes a bad chord in me that I can fix or re-do. Sometimes this means that I completely repaint a piece, and other times it just reinforces that the piece is done to my satisfaction.

I guess the sense of being special comes when a piece really surprises me by coming together somewhat magically so that I wonder how I ever made it. Of course the newest work always has its own specialness that wears off over time as I get used to looking at it. The pieces that retain the magic for me over time are the truly special ones.

Terry: What are you reading right now?

Nancy: I haven't been able to read much lately that requires sustained effort. I start a lot of books on various subjects but don't finish because I drag on reading them so long that I forget what I read previously. Right now I pretty much stick to the Sunday NY Times and New York magazine plus the art magazines. Even with this limited reading matter, I usually don't get to read the Times magazine or book review every week. Either I fall asleep when reading or my mind wanders and I find myself thinking up art ideas, sometimes to the point where I put down the reading matter and pick up the pencil.

Terry: What influence, if any, has our access to the world wide web had on your art?

Nancy: I regularly read several blogs that show the work of various artists and that has made me a lot more aware of what is going on in the art world as a whole. I blog myself so I am also thinking about things I see in a more active way. Although I see a lot more art, however, the number of artists whose work I really like is not that large. I think it takes seeing the work in person instead of on the web. But if I do see someone's work in person that I have seen previously on the web, I feel more connection to it. I also follow the work of many artists, particularly people I know who work in encaustic, and it lets me stay in touch with what they are doing. I have made several friends though blogs - including you, Terry - and that is a wonderful result of the internet.

Artist Statement February 2010

My work uses the sculptural qualities of wax and embedded objects to make semi-relief, abstract paintings that reference the passage of time. The softening of form, the marks and scars deposited by events, the traces of things that have come and gone, the layers added or scraped away and the inclusions that make dimension, texture and pattern are all a record of process and passage. I'm thinking about what is remembered and what is forgotten, the darkness and the light, secret and revealed, life and death.

Nancy is the Co-Chair of New England Wax and maintains their website:

http://newenglandwax.org

You can see more of her work at: http://www.nancynatale.net

You can also find her excellent blog at: http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com

Thank you Nancy for sharing your work and your story and thank you reader for visiting. You are invited to comment and support this fine artist.