Art In Wax in New High Street store

Next Saturday (28th April 2012) sees the launch of a new “Handmade” store opening in Colchester Essex and Art In Wax will be displayed and for sale in this new store.

British Handmade

The new store, “Handmade” owned and run by Maryann Morris will be opening in Sir Isaacs Walk Colchester next Saturday and is a store filled with British Artisan-Made gifts and accessories.

A selection of Art In Wax original paintings will be on display and for sale together with over 30 other British designer makers ranging from handmade jewellery to accessories, and from art, bath products to candles and luxury gifts and promotes itself as the “One Stop Pamper Shop for handmade luxuries and gifts for all the family”.

Opening – Launch Event

The shop opens on the 28th April 2012 at 6 Sir Isaacs Walk, Colchester, Essex CO1 1JJ
with more details of the designer and makers on the website www.handmadehighst.co.uk

There will be special offers on the launch day plus prize draws including an Art In Wax painting, so if you are in Essex next weekend why not pop in for a look around.

Art In Wax

Art in wax paintings are all original, below is photograph of some the the painting which will be for sale in the new Handmade shop, they range in size from 6 x 4 to 8 x 6 paintings and cover some of my favourite subjects, flowers, landscapes and fashion art. As you can see they are wrapped in cellophane and each have a tag with the Art In wax details on, all paintings are original artworks and are signed both in the wax and on the back.

If you have seen Art In Wax in store or you are going to be part of this event why not leave me a comment below.

Encaustic Art : Hot wax painting : tools

As an encaustic artist I have a range of tools that I use to create my paintings. I am a hot wax encaustic artist, “encaustic” as an art form covering many different types and styles of painting using a wide and varied array of techniques.

I use encaustic coloured wax supplied by encaustic.com and paint onto a specialist gloss card, I have experimented (and will be experimenting further) with other supports such as canvas and watercolour paper but most of my work is on the gloss card designed for the purpose.

I have several heat tools, a couple of small encaustic irons and two stylus tools, a hair dryer and currently on my wish list is a hot plate. I use one of the irons, as an iron to create my artwork, it is amazing what can be done with such an unusual shape for a painting tool, I love how I can create light and highlight just by the angle I hold the iron at and flow of the wax. I use another iron in its up turned, mini hot plate position which is good for use to create backgrounds on small pictures and to add effects to areas on larger paintings.

My favourite tool

I do have a clear winner when it comes to my favourite tool, the stylus heat tool with the micro iron nib.

This tool I use all the time, there are very few of my paintings that I haven’t used this on. The main part of a piece maybe done using the iron, I can add a lot of detail using the iron and I get many comments on how I must have a very “steady hand” to use the iron as I do and I could quiet happily use just my iron to paint with, but why would I, when I have the wonderful stylus too! I am very impressed with this piece of equipment and what can be achieved with it.

I have two stylus tools and one has the micro iron nib on permanently. This is a small iron shaped nib just 15 x 10 mm in size and I use it many ways, I liken it to the palette knife used in oil painting, I use it to cut into the wax, to add wax, to layer wax and add detail. I use it as a flat sided tool to create the petals for my daisies for example, the tip of the nib is my drawing tool and detailing tool, I add my birds in the distance on landscapes using this tool, it is immensely versatile I find.

My second stylus has the pen nib on most of the time, but I own and use the metal brush nib, round and mini iron nibs on occasion.

Studio set up

You can see my art studio set up in this blog post from last year showing all my tools in situ, and watch me paint on youtube to see me in action so to speak with my iron and stylus!

Please visit my website art gallery to see some of the paintings created using these wonderful waxing tools.

A Year On ….. And still just beginning!

It is just a year this week when I started painting in encaustic wax. I ordered my encaustic iron and stylus on the 2nd April 2011 and it arrive a couple of days later, and I haven’t looked back. To read my history of art and how I discovered encaustic art please read my artist profile page on the Art In Wax website.

It is a great journey of discovery

Over the last year I have discovered the wonders of working with wax, how this medium lends itself to many different techniques, I have tried many of these and still lots to try. I have experimented with different ways of painting in wax and on different surfaces and materials.

I have started to develop my style of painting in wax and although I still love some of my earlier work I can achieve much more now than then, details and texture are now much more part of my finished works. As you can see from the paintings here, this “Poppy” landscape was painted in March 2012 and the other “Wisteria Lake” last year in the summer time, both A3 in size but very different.

What a lot has happened

After painting for a few months it was suggested that I might show my work and maybe sell some of my pictures, which to my delight was what has happened! and my paintings are now as far a field as the US and Greece, plus many nationally in the UK.

I have online stores in two large retail outlets Folksy and Etsy. As a web developer for my business it also seemed natural to have a website which we built and launched in September 2011, mainly as a gallery for my work, which has already grown to include three catalogued gallery pages, an exhibits page, an online shop and this blog, which I love to write and share all things encaustic that are going on with me and my art in wax.

My paintings have also been seen on TV – Michael Bossom asked me if he could use some of my pictures as part of his demonstration show last year, which was very exciting seeing my paintings on screen! Some sceen shots from the show can be viewed in this article about the show.

More recently in January 2012 Adrian and I created two video demonstrations of me painting my encaustic roses, which are online at youtube and we are amazed by the response they have received.

And I have met (virtually) some amazing artists, especially when I became a member of encausticworld.com, an online encaustic artist network based in Canada and other people with a passion for encaustics and painting in wax.

Art In Wax – Going Forward

Next week sees the opening of the #twitterartexhibit in Moss Norway where one of my painting will be displayed as part of a special twitter artist exhibition – more details can be read in this recent blog post about the event.

Popular Crafts Magazine are featuring my artwork, coming up in June as part of their Jubilee issue, which has a photo project demonstration of me painting and encaustic Rose card, which Adrian photographed and I wrote for them.

And Art In Wax is hitting the High Street, April also sees some of my paintings going on sale in store in Colchester Essex – more on this after the launch in a few weeks.

Art In Wax – An Amazing Year

I can’t believe where this year has gone! It has been an amazing year, I love my new found passion for painting in this wonderful medium – it is great fun, I love the way it flows and how I can create with it, pictures unlike anything I have before, the wonders of WAX!