My Art Retreat at Sitka

 

Last week I gave myself the gift of an art retreat — five days of getting up and knowing there was nothing on my plate to do except make art, all day long.  Heaven.

I haven’t done any artwork at all since I finished the last Gaian Tarot card last fall. I’ve been wanting to learn the ancient process of encaustic (painting with beeswax) for the past three years, but didn’t allow myself to try it out until I had finished all the GT cards.  I even signed up for an encaustic workshop on Whidbey Island (not too far from me) last September, then had to cancel because I had too many deadlines at the time. 

I became fascinated with the medium when I realized its possibilities — you can build layer upon layer of collage, paint, and embedded objects, with layers of beeswax inbetween.  All the layers are translucent and the bottom layers are somewhat obscured.  You can scribe lines and textures into the wax, and you can scrape back parts of the top layer to reveals color and pattern underneath. 

It’s messy and tactile and makes room for happy accidents. It’s about as different from colored pencil painting as you can get! 

I took the class at the wonderful Sitka Center for Art & Ecology near the Oregon coast . . . 

 

 
and stayed in Lincoln City right on the beach.  

 

There were ten students and two teachers in the class.  We all learned the medium together and taught each other tips and tricks.  It was fascinating how each person’s work came out so distinctive and different, even though we were using the same tools. 

Here’s the first panel I worked on; it has 2 or 3 layers of beeswax on it:

 

Here’s how it looked later in the day:

   

Close-up of the spiral:

I added a couple more layers of beeswax and then, a face:

 

There are layers of torn paper, oil paints, oil pastels and beeswax.  I drew the face in charcoal on paper, looking at a photo of a Buddha statue.  Then I turned the drawing upside down on top of the wax and rubbed it with a burnisher.  It transferred quite nicely to the wax.  I then fused it lightly with the hot air gun.  (Fusing each layer is part of the process.)  I liked how the hot air gun moved the charcoal around a bit.  Made the eyelid more liquid.  

 

Here’s another piece I worked on, somewhat similar to the first:

 

I added the same face, but this time I incised the lines into the face after transferring the drawing. 

 

I filled the lines with black oil paint and scraped off the excess.  This face looks more like a woodcut and the first one is a bit more delicate.  I like the first face better, I think.

 

And here’s a third piece, completely different from the others.  This one is mostly cut paper, with oil paints and pastels adding touches here and there. I like this one a lot too.

 

 
 The first two, with the faces, seem to me to be about the dreamtime, about trance, about the in-between.  I know I was inspired by the creative energy of Sikta:

  

  
and by Sister Estuary and Mama Ocean:

 

I plan on doing a lot more encaustic pieces, and bringing some Tarot and Goddess archetypes into them.  One of these days I’ll put them up for sale. 

So. much. fun!

Comments

[Jean]

What a wonderful time you must have had. I like the pieces you created, especially the one of leaves made with cut paper. Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos.

I just had my morning coffee in a courtyard in Jerusalem, sitting under a vine and fig tree. I don't know how many birds get up dawn, but *lots.* They make a racket to rival traffic on the main street nearby.

[Joanna (a different one)]

Looks like a lot of fun. Your comment about woodcuts reminds me of how much I'm coming to realize that I really like that form of art (as an admirer; the forte of my creativity does not lie in the visual arts -- but I love looking at them!)

[joanna]

Good to hear from you, Jean. We miss you in the Circle. Your description of your morning in Jerusalem in very evocative. Hope all is well with you there.

Thanks Joanna! I love the way woodcuts look, too.

[Tracie]

Gorgeous! I love how tactile they are! I think I like the first face better too... I just spent the day at the late Renoir exhibit here in Philadelphia falling in love with his palette all over again. So luscious. Just like yours...

[judy]

ooh. ooh, ooh...
I want to do it too!
gonna look and see
if there's a class near me.

thanks for sharing, hugs, Judy

[Charyn]

OMG! That first face is simply incredibly beautiful. I can feel myself sighing inside. The peacefulness just emerges from the colors like coming out of a fog, softly, quietly. I so want to try that technique out... Smooches! Charyn

[Dominique]

lovely, lovely. Oh now I want to play with encaustic too. What a great gift to yourself! Thanks so much for sharing...and making us all jealous, hee hee.

[Sharon]

Aren't retreats wonderful. We forget sometimes how much we gain and tend to overlook the need to nourish our creativity with new insights and techniques. I love all your pieces. Thanks for posting them!
ArtL8dy at e14studio

[joanna]

Thanks everybody! My studio right now is a total mess, and needs to be cleared out to make room for encaustic tools . . . Can't wait to get back to this.

[Darcy Walters]

Joanna, I finally took the time to look at your photos and read about your experiences at Sitka. So beautiful, and so creative! Thank you so much for sharing, and it was an honor to see your creations in person (I'm still remembering the lovely warm scent of beeswax :)