As the temperature hit an unheard of 102 degrees in Portland last week I had a decision to make. I was facing a three day workshop that had been sold out for months in a studio where at least 3 griddles and various tools would be contributing 200 degrees or more for each of the six hours a day we’d be in there. I snapped. It was time to buy an air conditioner!

Of course when you wait that long you don’t have the benefit of a sale, no matter what the sign out front says. My helpful hubby and I motored on down, bit the bullet and bagged us an air conditioner. Of course then we had to install it in that heat, hoping it wouldn’t trip the breakers in my studio. Apparently my math was good this time and since we were able to find a unit that only takes 7 amps it turned out OK. Better than OK, really, because look at what my VERY happy students were able to produce in 3 comfortable days in the studio:

This was a very unusual 3 day class offered because I had three out of town visitors who wanted to attend my full range of classes — from beginner to intermediate to advanced — all in a short visit. There were 3 classes covered: Beginning Encaustic Intensive, Beyond Basics (my intermediate class) and Advanced Encaustic Techniques. I welcomed Thea and Sylvie from Canada (in black aprons) and Suzanne from Sacramento. Also pictured is Brenda (sitting) who lives in town and has taken many classes from me.

Everyone created so much work over the three days that we eventually moved to additional tables outside to make a ’safe zone” for finished work. Even that area was eventually taken over when we decided to spread out and use oil sticks and oil paints outside as the temperature finally cooled to an agreeable 76 degrees on Monday. Everyone left exhausted but happy and I took a very long nap. What fun!

OK, here I am in Arizona and somehow my classes are already done! I taught Wax Image Transfers on Tuesday night and Beeswax Collage Basics all day yesterday. I had really fun students so the class time just flew by. Here are a few photos of the classes and the beautiful work my students created. Enjoy!

Click on any of the images above to see a larger version.

Most of these pieces were created with nothing but collage materials, stamps, pastels, and natural or clear beeswax, and many of the students had never even worked with wax before. Very impressive, don’t you think? Great work everyone!

This class sold out quickly so if you missed it you can still learn many of these techniques from my book, Embracing Encaustic: Learning to Paint with Beeswax (which is available to purchase online here), or come visit me in Oregon for a one or two day workshop in my private studio. You can view my full workshop schedule here.

Also, if any of you are planning to attend Art & Soul retreat in Oregon this fall, I can book workshops that are convenient to your class dates in Portland. Just contact me an let me know when you’ll be in town so we can make a plan that works for you.

Days 2 & 3 of the conference were no less hectic than the first but just as much fun! I am a vendor here and also presenting two demonstrations, so I’m always late for something. I don’t know what I was thinking. My husband Bill helped me out on the first day but after that I’m on my own. That was out deal, he needs a vacation too! BTW, he’s taking full advantage of his time alone and went exploring yesterday only to find himself in Maine around lunchtime. Must be time for lobster rolls!

These two days were filled with hands on demos, slide lectures, panel discussions, show openings and more stuff to buy! (Pictured here are Piper and Hylla Evans of Evans Encaustic.)

When we registered we were able to choose 3 events a day to attend in small groups, then there were larger gatherings where everyone was in the same room. Here are some highlights:

Mary Hart – Text Into Wax

As you might imagine Mary’s demo was all about incorporating text into your work. She went over a variety of collage methods and how to scribe directly into the wax both freehand and using stencils. I was already familiar with these techniques but it’s always nice to see how another artists does the same things I do because I often learn some thing new. Mary uses oil paint directly through a stencil onto the wax, adding Liquin to her oil paints so they will dry faster. She also likes printing to Mulberrry paper using her inkjet printer and says if you sut it to size for your machine you won’t need to attach it to a backing paper to run it through the rollers. I’ll have to try that one soon.

Paula Roland

I’ve seen encaustic monotypes demonstrated before, but never by the master, Paula Roland. She has been responsible some really exciting work in this area. I’ve known Paula for a while but we are often teaching at the same time at these events so it was a pleasure to finally see her teaching this in person. Paula works on a “hot box” set to 160 degrees and paints directly onto the surface of the palette, then presses down art paper to make the print. Sometimes she prints multiple times on the same piece of paper, layering her wax into it. They are quite beautiful! I’ve tried this and it’s much harder than it looks.

My Masks and Stencils Demo

Aside from attending demos and begin a vendor, I was also a teacher at this conference, offering my Working with Stencils and Masks demo twice during the conference. Both sessions sold out within weeks of registration so there were a lot of people who couldn’t get in. Hopefully I’ll be doing a similar demo again next year!

Joanne Mattera

We have seen some wonderful art shows already this conference, but we were treated to two more on Sunday night. We were treated to a show of original work by the author of The Art of Encaustic Painting and Conference Director, Joanne Mattera. In my opinion her breathtaking Silk Road series can only be truly appreciated in person. I did my best with these photographs, but if you ever get a chance to see the real thing don’t miss it.

The Diptych Project

I was also able to see the second half of The Diptych Project: A Collaboration in Wax, which matched 36 artists into pairs to work collaboratively on 2 encaustic paintings. The objective was for each pair of artists to make two diptychs (a diptych is work made up of two panels). I had previously seen only the work that showed in Oregon, but this was the rest of the show. There were many fine pieces to see, but if you missed either show you are still in luck. Nancy Natale has complied a book in either softcover or hardcover.

View all of my posts about the National Encaustic Conference here

A North Carolina treasure for more than 80 years, the John C. Folk School offers workshops in art, craft, dance, music, cooking, storytelling and writing. I’m teaching a week long workshop here this week called Incredible Encaustics, which combines beginning and advanced classes for a complete introduction to encaustic painting. This will be my first time teaching at the folk school and I am honored to have been invited.

I’ve been preparing for the trip all week, making encuastic medium for my students and trying to figure out how to get all of my equipment across the country in two bags that weigh no more than 50 lbs. each. This was not easy, but I made it! And the TSA didn’t even remove anything from my bags. Imagine finding damar resin crystals and bars of wax in someone’s luggage without knowing what they were…I put copies of my book in each bag just in case.

Tonight I met my new friends for the week and I showed a quick slide show to give them an overview of the general technique and the amazing variety of looks you can get using wax. Everyone seems very excited! I’ll try to post a couple of times this week if I am able, otherwise you’ll get a nice long post when I return.

Yesterday I had two classes in a row, both doing Wax Image Transfers. I had initially scheduled only one class, but so many people wanted to try it I eventually added another. Needless to say the enthusiasm was pretty high going into the class, and everyone left with something they loved.

That’s not to say there weren’t some frustrating moments. Transfers require some patience and they don’t always work on the first try, which is why I encourage students to bring multiples of all of their images. I have a sad little copy machine available for emergencies but it’s needed more and more encouragement as the days go by just to make one little copy. We’ll see how long it lasts!

In any case, everyone left class with at least one success and lots of new knowledge on how to chose an image that will transfer easily. That’s part of what I love about teaching classes in small groups instead of on-on-one, you often learn as much from the challenges your fellow artists face as you do from your own difficulties.

Take a look at the amazing variety of work that came out of the two classes:

Click on the smaller images to see larger versions

See images from other classes here or visit my web site for upcoming class schedules.

I debuted my new class tonight, Mixing Your Own Encaustic Paint, and everyone went home energized and ready to make more! First we mixed up a big batch of encaustic medium (beeswax + damar resin) then used that mixture to make paint using each students choice of pigment and colors. Powdered pigments were popular, as were Lyra encaustic crayons.

Here I am demonstrating how to mix encaustic medium using beeswax and resin. We later used what was made here to mix our paint.

Ruth and Cinnamon remove their new paint from the griddle to cool. Everyone takes home 4 pots of paint.

We also discussed the unique properties of pre-mixed paint brands including R&F Handmade Paints, Evans Encaustics, Enkaustikos and Wagner Encaustics. Before the night was over everyone got a chance to try mixing paint directly on the palette, and learned how to clean up waxy brushes. After learning to mix the medium and paint themselves, each student wet home with 3 colors of paint and a pot of clear medium. If you want to try it yourself join me for the next paint mixing class on April 24. Start saving your tuna and cat food cans now!

See more class images here or visit my web site for upcoming class schedules.

Jodi gets to work on her second painting of the day.

Diana with her flying cat (on the left)!

Anna with her creations. The piece on the left was done entirely with collage and clear encaustic medium. A beautiful effect!

Today I had the pleasure of painting, laughing and playing with six wonderful women in my Tons of Texture class: Casey, Charmaine, Cynthia, Deanna, Kalynne and Jennifer. This is one of my new intermediate classes for those who have already gotten their hands dirty (or sticky?) with wax by taking a beginning encaustic class with me or any other teacher, or even experimenting on their own. The only requirement is that you already know how to paint on and fuse layers of wax so we can get right into the fun stuff without reviewing the basics. Check my web site for a full schedule of my upcoming classes, including Wax Image Transfers, Mixing Your Own Paint, more Tons of Texture classes, and in April I’ll add a new one: Working with Masks and Stencils.

Here’s peek into the fun we had today and the beautiful work that was created. Click on the smaller photos to see larger versions. The beautiful work above is by Casey.

Cynthia’s bird soars

Deanna, Cynthia and Casey trading colors and techniques

Jennifer’s abstract work

Deanna’s waves

Wow, what a wonderful class we had to day! Five lovely women, all fearless and ready to wax. OK, there was a little fear initially of working with the propane torch, but everyone left confident and with really beautiful work. Take a look…

Here’s my studio, with everyone (wo)manning their work stations

Click on each of the photos above for a larger version.

Linda, Cathie, Michelle, Leslie and Nancy with some of their finished work

Here’s a close up of the huge variety of styles people attempted today in just one class. Beautiful!

The best part is that they all said they’d like to continue painting with wax which is music to my ears. Several of them are also interested in my Intermediate Workshops so I hope to see them again soon.

This weekend I had the pleasure of working with two different groups of artists in two Encaustic Intensive classes. The Sunday class had booked out over a month ahead of time. Then I heard from three more artists who wanted to take the same class, but would only be in town around that same weekend. After some date swapping (and plenty of flexibility from everyone involved) I was able to book an additional class on Friday. We all had a wonderful time! Take a peek:

Josephine’s inspired abstract

Betsy choosing papers for her collage

Betsy’s birds are printed on fabric and combines with matching encaustic paint, papers and netting.

Linda, Josephine and Betsy with their finished work.

Alaina fusing her painting on birch panel.

Linda’s landscape collage combined photos on paper, encaustic pant and dried plants for a wonderful effect!

Carol, Alaina and Alissa with their finished work.

To see upcoming class schedules visit my web site.