Sweet Peas – An English Summer Favorite

Having just sown some sweet pea seeds in the garden last week, we are looking forward to one of our favorite flowers blooming in the summer. Sweet peas are a delicate and beautiful plant with an abundance of flowers and a very sweet scent.

The sweet pea was developed by Henry Eckford via wikipedia a nurseryman of the Victorian era, which has been developed and evolved into the sweet peas, in many varieties we know today.

Inspired to paint

So I thought why not – Paint some Sweet Peas!

I did some sketching and you can see how I got on below, I did my pencil drawing and then my encaustic painting. I like to sketch sometimes before stating my hot wax pictures, I use this as a guide more than something to copy from, but they help me keep on track so to speak as I get invloved with the wax. I then decided to doodle on the drawing with some watercolour paints and this is what I ended up with ……..

Encaustic Painting : Sweet Peas

This is the encaustic, hot wax version of the painting, it is an A4 encaustic painting on gloss card, it was created using some of my favorite colours, pinks and purples …… now just got to wait for the real flowers to grow and flower in the garden.

Art In Wax – 1st Anniversary

Time flies when you’re having fun!

I can’t believe its September and the first anniversary of Art In Wax online. The first blog post was on the 1st September 2011, I bought the artinwax.co.uk domain name at the end of August and started creating the website and blog, the blog was launched on the 1st and the website and encaustic art gallery a couple of weeks later.

Lots has happened in a year

I have been looking back at the Art In Wax blog which is a great record of the past year online, with lots of new paintings on display and details of all that has gone on.

By revising my own blog it has reminded me just how well received my artwork has been, both in the way of sales of my pieces but also in the offers and invitations I have received to show and publish my work.

The blog includes news and events, plus demonstrations and articles such as how I love working with my stylus heat tools, how “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” regarding art displays and “What a difference a frame makes” looking at mounting and framing my Encaustic paintings.

Some of the highlights ……..

September saw the launch of the Art In wax Blog and website.

Followed in October by some of my pieces being shown on the create and craft TV channel as examples of my work in Michael Bossoms encaustic art show. As seen on screen!

October also saw my own first “How to paint” project published : Daisy Painting In Encaustic Wax

December was the month my Lady Day Exhibit went live and I blogged about my studio and showed photographs of where I paint in wax.

January 2012 and Art In Wax website was featured in a magazine and Adrian and I produced two videos of me painting which we launched on You Tube : Encaustic Roses, to my amazement they have now had over 4000 views.

February and one of my paintings went to Norway for a twitter inspired Charity Exhibition.

Art In Wax hit the high Street in April when some of my paintings became available to buy in Colchester Essex @ “Handmade High Street” : Art In Wax In Store

In May I was featured as Artist of the month on a National craft magazine website.

May / June saw Art In Wax have a double page spread in Popular Crafts Magazine.

August I published the project on the blog from the magazine giving step by step demonstration of how I paint in hot wax.

These are just a few example of the events that have happened over the past year, with over 40 posts and many more planned, including more projects and videos.

To find out more about me please visit my Artist Profile Page

And to view more paintings please see my online Art Gallery.

Art In Wax : Shop Online For Original Art

Online Shop Open

The Art In Wax online shop is now open again, after a short break the shop is now online and open to purchase original art direct from me the artist.

All transactions on the Art In Wax website are via Paypal.

Free UK Postage

All the prices in the shop are just what you pay. Postage and Packaging is Free to UK mainland addresses.

Great Gifts

Art may not be the first thing you think of as a gift, but what a wonderful and different present an original piece of art can be. As a special occasion gift maybe for a wedding or anniversary, as a Thank you present or a home warming gift.

Home Décor

Original art makes a great addition to a room, encaustic art has a wonderful sheen and texture and when people see my paintings they are amazed at the fact that they are created using hot wax, can even be a talking point.

Original Art For Sale

Art In Wax Shop : All paintings are a one off therefore should a painting be ordered by two people while we are away from the computer the first order, time stamped, will receive the painting ordered, in the event this happens, we will refund the money to the other party and if possible offer an alternative painting.

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.

New Painting : Sunflowers

Hot Wax Painting : Golden Sunflowers

I have painted Sunflowers over the past year several times, they are a favourite flower of mine, I love the way they are tall and majestic, standing proud in gardens and fields.

This is a new painting, created over the last weekend, where as in the past some of my paintings have taken me no time at all, I now take time over them and can spend several hours on a piece like this taking me over a few days to complete.

The sunflowers have been painted using a limited palette of orange, yellow and brown waxes, with some white and black for the highlights and centre. The encaustic iron was the main tool used in creating the picture with some stylus work for the detailing as this is a larger piece at 16 x 12.

Many of the paintings on the Art In Wax are for sale, please contact me for details if you see a painting you are interested it buying.