Mix Media Artwork : Watercolor, Ink and Wax

As someone who loves many types of art I am always interested to see and try new things, especially with wax as this is my passion as an artist.

The way I paint using wax, I use a formulated wax medium which is already coloured and ready for use. I mostly paint onto a specialist encaustic gloss card. My style of painting is a light coating of wax, it has texture and sheen but is not as deep as some encaustic painting styles that have many layers of wax.

There are many styles of “Encaustic Art” and a wide and varied range of techniques, each with its own unique and special use of the wax. Some are deep layered paintings craved out through the wax, others are painted with a brush, and some use mixed media techniques, using photographs and collage type styles.

I do like to try new things and enjoyed my experience of working with canvas board and deep layers of wax when painting roses last year, I blogged about it “First experience of painting wax on canvas”.

Art In Wax Experimenting Again!

I love to experiment with wax and for a change I decided to try adding a layer of wax to a couple of paintings which are drawings in pencil, which I then painted in watercolour and added some ink pen too.

I have created two pictures at an ACEO size (2.5 x 3.5 inches), I thought I would start small to see have the wax reacted to the card, which was a porous surface rather than my normal encaustic gloss card and the results are very interesting …….

I don’t draw onto my card when I am painting an encaustic painting, I do sometimes make stretches to work from but mostly I paint free hand and from my imagination when using wax, so this is a different way of working with wax for me.

As you can see from these ACEO pictures I have pencil drawn my subject I then painted in watercolours, and using some coloured ink pens define some of the lines a little to give a drawn effect. In the meadow picture the lines enhence the rustic feel of the drawing and for the poppies the ink gives depth the the petals I feel.

Once totally dry, I left them overnight, I used clear wax medium and coated the pictures in the wax using a heated iron tool, which fused the wax to the picture.

The paintings now have a wonderful shine now they have had a light polish and yet the colours of the watercolour are still bright as they were before, they have a very slight texture.

Comments Welcome

What do you think?

Please leave me a comment below.

ACEO and ATC : Miniature Paintings

When I first started to show my encaustic artwork online a few years ago, I was asked by a lady called Margaret (an ACEO Collector) on an Artists Art chat forum if I painted any ACEO’s. Not knowing what an ACEO was at the time, I did a search, as you do, and found ACEO stands for Art Card Editions and Originals.

Having heard about ATC (Artist Trading Cards) before I found that ACEO’s are on off-shoot from these. From my research I found out that as ATC are traded or exchanged, an ACEO can be found for sale. They are very collectible and a popular pastime for many and an affordable way to collect art.

Miniature works of Art : Art Card Editions and Originals

A miniature type work of art, an ATC or ACEO can come in a wide variety of styles, materials and subjects. The only criteria is that the size is 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

I have found since painting some AECO’s myself that the variety of talented people creating these wonderful works is so wide and varied I couldn’t possibly mention them all here but from watercolours and acrylics to mix media they are contemporary, modern, classic, abstract, impressionist and much much more …

I have a couple of my own displayed in our office on mini wooden easel stands, plus a couple by other artists that I have bought for my husband, I just couldn’t resist them, one is an Owl (he’s so wise sometimes) and the other a F1 car. As we love to be surrounded by art these small pieces are perfect for our busy office as they don’t take up too much space.

Encaustic ACEO

Although I am concentrating on painting some larger pieces at the moment, I still paint an Encaustic ACEO from time to time, as they are still great fun to paint and I enjoy the challenge of painting in miniature with wax.

I first thought of these miniature pictures as ways to show people what could be done in wax and maybe a taster into looking at larger works, but they are an art form all to themselves and a very popular collectable one at that! I have sold quiet a few over the past few years, to collectors in both the UK and US.

Hot wax Collection : View An ACEO Showcase

A few of my Encaustic ACEO paintings, some still mine, others sold and in private collections can be viewed online in a slideshow on the Art In Wax youtube channel which I put together at the end of last year to showcase some of these works.

Epilogue

Having written this blog post I was then inspired to paint an ACEO. I haven’t painted one in several months and it was a challenge but in the end I created a couple of these miniature art works.

Two new paintings are pictured below : The Sunflower and Landscape are new this week, the fish was painted in 2011 and the flower vase earlier last year 2012.

My ACEO’s are for sale, you can contact me direct for details of how to make a purchase via my website contact page form.

If you perhaps collect ACEO’s and/or paint and create them yourself or you just found this post interesting do please leave me a comment below, its great to get feedback.

ACEO Original Art

Encaustic Art ACEO Collection Show

I have today created a slide show of some of my ACEO paintings.

This show is based on a selection of my ACEO paintings

ACEO stands for “Art Card Editions and Originals” ACEO’s are on off-shoot of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) both of which have a long standing history.

An ACEO is a miniature work of art, and can take a wide variety of styles, materials and subjects they are 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size.

Collectibles

ACEO’s are very collectible and a popular pastime as they are an affordable way to collect art , I have sold many ACEO’s and most of these shown in this slide show are now with private collectors across the globe.

I don’t currently have any ACEO in my shop by if you are interested in purchasing one from me for your collection please contact me and I will advise what I have available or maybe I can paint one especially for you as a commission.

More shows

Creating these more themed shows is great fun as I look back at all my paintings and Artwork, next I will look at Landscapes and My “Ladies” to see what show will be next online.

What do you think of this slide show?
Please leave me a comment below if you liked this show and if you would like to see more slide shows of Art In Wax.

Thanks for watching.

Having recently started to show my encaustic artwork online, I was very encouraged when I was asked on a forum if I had created any ACEO’s. Not knowing what an ACEO was, naturally my first port of call was Google, where I found ACEO stands for Art Card Editions and Originals. I had heard of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) and found that ACEO’s are on off-shoot from these, both of which have a long standing history.

An ACEO is like a miniature work of art, and can take a wide variety of styles, materials and subjects. The criteria is that they are 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size.

Collectibles

ACEO’s are very collectible and a popular pastime as they are an affordable way to collect art without needing a vast area to store of display them.

My ACEO Paintings

Following my research I decided to try some miniature paintings. Up until then most of my pictures where 6 x 4 or 10 x 8 inches in size although I have done a few larger pieces. So I started by cutting some encaustic card to the correct size and started to paint. The paintings are great fun to create and I found I really enjoyed painting at this size and to my absolute amazement I sold six original ACEO encaustic paintings in the first two weeks of posting them online.

I’m currently working on more paintings some as large as A3 as a total contrast, and others in miniature as Art Card Editions and Originals. I find my passion for painting with the wax works equally as well whether a picture is large or small.

I will be adding some of the new artwork onto this website soon, ready for the official artinwax.co.uk website launch at the end of September 2011……… So watch this space.