Encaustic Portrait Workshop

12x16

oil and wax medium on board

Just spent the last 3 days in an Encaustics Portrait workshop at The Encaustic Center with artists Lori Murphy and Bonny Leibowitz.  It was so much fun not only working with portraits but with a new medium that includes using a torch and an iron!  Very addictive!  These are the results of three very intense days of work.  

Roadside Oak

Roadside Oak

18x24

Oil on canvas

All those oak tress you see along the road in the Texas Hill Country!  I just love them, their shapes and colors and age.  They are often alone in a field - the stories they could tell of Texas history. Anyway, this one was a lot of fun to play with the layers of colors and use a palette knife for texture (and because I always feel playful with a palette knife).  

Barn

11x14

oil on canvas

I loved how the sun was exploding off of this barn along with the shadows from the trees surrounding it.  

Village

9x12

Oil on canvas

I've always wanted to try a painting using blocks of color.  This was an interesting study.  Not so sure how well I pulled it off, but I enjoyed using the brighter colors and working on a more pared down composition.  

Moonlit Garden

 8x10

Oil on canvas board

Sometimes when I finish working on a painting for the day I will have some extra paint.  If there is enough left I will freeze it for use later, but if not, I just scrape it onto a canvas.  After layers and layers of leftovers this painting developed!  

High Meadow

High Meadow

11x14

oil on canvas

I have always loved this meadow in Yellowstone National Park.  It seems so peaceful and quiet (and wet!).  I enjoyed working on that aspect as well as continuing to develop my skills in painting distance.  

Montana landscape

9x12

oil on canvas

Another scene from beautiful Montana in the fall.  Nature has so much character!

Continuing to play with distance and looser strokes and bigger brushes.  

Montana Stand

Montana Stand

11x14

oil on canvas

Having fun working on some landscapes from places I have visited and have happy memories with friends.  This one was on a fishing/hunting trip in Montana.  While others were shooting pheasant, I was shooting this!  Been playing with distances, the last one I painted was far distance and this one sits in front of hills of trees.  Fun with values.

Teton Marsh

Teton Marsh

6x12

oil on canvas

I had this small and different canvas that I wanted to try out with a landscape with lots of depth.  Took this shot during a visit to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.  Lots of marsh looking toward Lake Jackson and the mountain range on a typically grayish day.  

Lost Maple

Lost Maple

oil on canvas

9x12

Fall color from the beautiful Lost Maples State Park in Texas.  Sometimes I like to loosen up by just using a palate knife with lots of colors.